Untitled (Antenna)

Description

The photograph depicts a woman with her back to us while standing on a roof overlooking the city of Istanbul. She is holding firmly onto a TV aerial with both hands, leaning over to the right as she fights to keep her balance in the wind. This struggle to keep the antenna upright represents an act of resistance and is perhaps a metaphor for Turkey’s current political leanings.

The artist’s approach is militant. She is condemning the patriarchal system and all the forms of discrimination that she has witnessed in her country. According to the artist, Turkish society remains too anchored in obsolete traditions and customs that prohibit women from achieving emancipation.

Murtezaoglu’s photographs are political statements. In several works, Murtezaoglu strives to articulate a "perspective from within" by putting herself in the place of the protagonist, without lapsing into the realms of documentary or autobiography. The artist surveys socio-political movements and their traces in daily life, and she intervenes minimally in everyday reality, as is the case with 'Antenna', in order to preserve and reconsider critical moments.

_2019

Queer perspective

Murtezaoglu investigates social issues and the traditional role of women in Islamic Turkey. She is concerned with domestic violence and unease in Turkish society and how it affects the expression of female sexuality. How do you represent these deficiencies and the unstable position in which women somehow have to remain in balance? How do you represent the struggle to be heard and the will to change?

%>Tags: activism, discrimination, feminism, gender vs sex, reclaim

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