The Egg
Ten thousand years ago, there were 1 million people living on the planet, fifty years ago there were 3 billion of us and, by the end of this century, we are estimated to reach a population of 10 billion people! We have modified almost every part of our planet and, as we continue to grow, our need for vital resources increases exponentially. We human beings are the main force behind every global problem we face. The work is a kinetic sound sculpture resembling an egg. The cycle of life, reflected in the shape of the sculpture with neither beginning nor end, symbolizes fertility and reproduction – and thus questions the impact of overpopulation. Driven by real-time data generated by the Worldometer, the sculpture constantly changes its shape.

Disappearance

In this work the movement of a large video monitor mounted on an industrial fork-lift truck creates a virtual representation of a larger than life size ballerina. As the forklift moves the monitor up and down the ballerina is presented from head to toe, and as the forklift truck rotates the ballerina also appears to turn. In this way the monitor functions as a window that gradually reveals the virtual presence of the ballerina who is dancing in the same axis as the rotating forklift truck. Also visible inside the motor compartment of the forklift truck is a small rotating ballerina figurine in front of which a video camera moves up and down. This mechanism is electronically synchronised with the movement of the forklift itself and provides the closed circuit source for the video image of the ballerina that is seen on the monitor screen. Disappearance evokes and celebrates the memory of the ballerina on a music box (a first generation robot) and generates her virtual reconstruction to the extent that the machinery of reproduction itself now incarnates her pirouettes.
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URUSHI-E
“Traditionnellement, les images du Genji sont appliquées sur la soie des kimonos, selon une antique technique japonaise de laque mêlée de poudre d’or ou d’argent appelée urushi-e. Ici, cette technique d’urushi-e, littéralement «image laquée», est appliquée sur mes propres autoportraits photographiques qui sont des impressions pigmentaires sur toile. Le dessin à la poudre d’or imite la broderie au fil d’or – il est tellement fin que la reproduction photographique de l’œuvre rend difficilement compte du raffinement de cette technique subtile.” Kimiko Yoshida

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Candeğer Furtun employs traditional ceramic techniques in order to examine and portray the human body. She often works with reproductions of individual body parts, which are then combined so that an individual fragment can represent the whole, or suggest a larger scene, history, idea or space. Having studied arts and crafts both at home and abroad in the 1950s and 1960s, her eye towards her own culture is of an insider as well as an outsider.

“Baraka is a documentary that starts from an old word with meanings in several languages. It can be translated as a blessing, breath or essence of life, from where the process of world evolution is triggered. The film reveals how much humanity is interconnected, despite the differences in religion, culture and language of the peoples. A true visual poem without narration or caption, only images and sounds carefully captured and articulated through an expressive montage, which makes each take add the next other meaning, whose theme is… After all, what is Baraka about? I believe that each viewer of the film sees a different theme. It can be about the strength of planet Earth. It may be about the multiple diversities that unite us. It can be a lot. Baraka is a visual reproduction of the human connection with the Earth ”