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Void: Photography of Displacement

Rehan Miskci

Artist’s statement:
As a member of the Armenian minority in Turkey, the notions of displacement and invisibility become key elements in my work. In my thesis project “Void”, I am exploring my struggle with this issue by visualizing notions of the displacement, the loss of identity and the absence or disappearance of the culture through images that emphasize these notions through the evocation and depiction of studio space.

My main inspiration in this project is the archive of Maryam Sahinyan, an Armenian studio photographer, a woman who worked for almost 50 years (1937 – 1985) in the heart of Istanbul. I focus on her studio space and think of it as a recorder of personal memories, as well as of social and political events that led to corruption in the culture and threatened the existence of the minorities in Turkey.

In my work I select images from the archive and remove the figures in them. All that remains is the setting that the people were photographed in. Sahinyan’s studio, as a physical entity, functioning as an ambiguous area between public and private, becomes a hidden stage, where anyone might perform their identity for the camera.

While I remove Sahinyan’s subjects from the original photographs they are transported back and fragmented into my abstract reinterpretations of those studio settings. In these works the abstracted studio space becomes a dramatic vehicle for exploring presence through absence. In both parts of this project I aim to visualize the idea of loss and disruption, which defines the Armenian experience in Turkey.

Bride - Rehan Miskci
Bride
Eye - Rehan Miskci
Eye
Fire - Rehan Miskci
Fire
Insider I - Rehan Miskci
Insider I
Insider II - Rehan Miskci
Insider II
Lace - Rehan Miskci
Lace
Pillars II - Rehan Miskci
Pillars II
Pillar III - Rehan Miskci
Pillar III
Pillars IV - Rehan Miskci
Pillars IV
Pillars V - Rehan Miskci
Pillars V
Pillars I - Rehan Miskci
Pillars I
Unfold I - Rehan Miskci
Unfold I
Unfold II - Rehan Miskci
Unfold II
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Rehan Miskci

Rehan Miskci is a New York based visual artist from Istanbul, and recently finished an MFA degree in Photography, Video and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Rehan's thesis project 'Void' - where she explores her identity as a member of the Armenian minority - has been nominated for the European League of Institutes of the Arts Festival, has won the Thomas Reiss Memorial award for Humanitarian Issues, and was selected for various exhibitions in New York, Istanbul and Reading. The book for the project was selected to be showcased and sold at the New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 and LA Art Book Fair. Visit her website at rehanmiskci.com.

Author: Rehan Miskci Tags: photography Category: Visual Art and Visual Poetry March 17, 2015

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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