Cda presents Özlem Şimşek’s exhibition

Cda-Projects presents Özlem Şimşek’s latest work in her new exhibition titled “Dramatic Persona,” opening on May 4th. Şimşek takes on the image of the modern women constructed in Turkish paintings during the Westernization and Modernization processes through an archaeological research that manifests itself as works of video and photography. Focusing on the processes that shape the representation of women in the 19th and 20th centuries, she sets out to bring to light the influential symbols and icons.

Şimşek meticulously follows the path of this process that could have included archaic myths, miniatures, pin-ups, ancient sculptures and religious figures. Images of women, costumes, the matter of nudity, identity, and paintings that represent women from different social groups and the lives of the painters hold a mirror up to the history of Turkey and the change in social structure. This multi-layered structure that has been shaped by image, form, significance and an inter-temporal transitivity, is separated by the artist in an attempt to articulate new suggestions toward other possibilities of cohesion.