Hüseyin Chalayan likes to play with the meanings of identity and its perceptions. While he tries to create different perceptions for identity, he opens new dimensions for the meaning of identity and he walks in a platform that comes from past but also belongs to the future and present. He deconstructs and then again constructs the identity, past, present and future. Chalayan also adds the concept of immigration into his process of questioning the identity and as a result, creates multi-room installations, deploying audio, video, sculpture and fashion in his latest exhibition at Galerist, which titled “Proximity Sensors”.
Chalayan’s approach is such a unique one, as he combines romantic past traditions with the digital future and present in his current exhibition. His approach to traditions and identity pertains to a Derridian notion of deconstruction, in which he deconstructs all the traditions and adds a different point of view by using digital futures in his works and turn the “past” into contemporary. Chalayan traces the past while he carries it to another platform. The non-existence nature of the “traces of the past” also “reconstructs” the future and let two different periods to exist in the same place. Thus, he can exhibit a coalition of classical and contemporary in the same venue. Artist depicts how the times are changing in terms of physical features that we witness in our daily lives. While doing this, Chalayan uses the aspects of identity, culture and immigration.
While he evokes the spirits of the past, he recalls the old make up styles, old hairstyles, old traditional songs and Istanbul. However, driving the past into the light requires many things such as film, sculpture, performance art and musical notations. “Proximity Sensors” shows how to deconstruct the identity of the past, while also depicts the longing of past. Chalayan continues to defy the classical expressions and narrations of tradition and adds an innovative convergence of fashion, performance, installation, technology, and anthropology into his show.
The Chalayan way of questioning the identity comes as a surprise, as the artist choose to use irony and contradiction in his work “I am said Leyla”, which is a nuanced combination of audio, film, sculpture and musical notation that creates a “disembodied experience” of a performance of a traditional Turkish classical composition by Sertab Erener, a very well-known singer in Turkey, who is not known for this genre of music. An Ottoman Orchestra accompanies Erener while she sings as I’ve wrapped my soul with my sorrow. I’ve painted my mourning heart with the color of the night.” While Erener sings a traditional Turkish song, her dress, designed by Chalayan with contemporary and digital features contradicts her situation. While in one room can only watch the film and listen to the music shows Erener and the orchestra, the other room contains a statue of Erener singing, the face of which is animated by a projection. Chalayan examines the experience of music as layered, exploring both the sounds created by different instruments, and the diverse cultural influences on the composition, which include Persian poetry and Greek orthodox chanting. Chalayan carries the past to future.
“I am said Leyla”, first exhibited in London’s Lisson Gallery this year in a slightly different layout. While in Lisson Gallery Erener’s statue were displayed in a brighter room, here in Istanbul’s Galerist, the room is dark.
As the viewer proceeds to the other rooms, Chalayan’s new work, “Imminence Of Change,” a work that deals with the past century is displaying for the first time in the world at Galerist.
Chalayan delves into iconic hair and make up styles from over the past century. Once again, he prefers to use video, sculpture and robotics. The piece shows different hair and make up styles that women were applying once upon a time. The work evolves from one style to another. The subtle shifts in the movement of the installation draws sharp contrasts between styles allowing the audience come to their own conclusions about identity and aesthetic. In the video of this work, Chalayan also appears with a different hairstyle. He is carrying a wig, which reminds the audiences about 1970s. Chalayan changes the hairstyle of the model with a remote control. Once again the coalition of past and futurism reveal in this work.
Among all the pieces in the show, ‘Imminence of Desire,’ which is again a new work of the artist, maybe the most significant work, which deals with the immigration and the cross cultural concepts, that the viewers are used to see in Chalayan’s work. On the other hand, under scrutiny, the piece represents a real past time romanticism.
Chalayan examines Istanbul’s place within a cultural and historical. For someone, who knows Istanbul, the work is a real masterpiece as it reveals its romantic past and details. Few cities in the world are as multifaceted and have been historically desired by so many cultures as Istanbul. Chalayan believes that in both past and present the city is constantly in a state of flux. Over thousands of years Istanbul has had over approximately 150 names. Each name reflects a particular culture’s attachment to the city. Remarkably diverse cultures have at one time or another made claim to the city’s identity and asserted their own idea of what the city represents.
What makes this piece s romantic get away to the past is the voices that the viewer can hear, while looking at the table (an old style of table, which were used in the airports), which is displaying 150 different names of Istanbul. Voices of seagulls, heard in the background give the feeling as arriving to Istanbul or leaving the city. The ‘leaving’ and ‘arriving’ aspects in the work, also displays how Chalayan approaches to cross cultural issues in his works. Bright room and the seagull voices, leaves a sweet taste and as a reflection of this sweetness, a mild smile on the face of the viewers as they walk away.