December
Güler Ateş
On Güler Ateş’s solo exhibition: Present and Absent
Güler’s photographs were taken in the majestic settings of the Italian Room, Panel II Room and the Tapestry Room at Great Fosters, complete with 17th century Flemish tapestries and a carved wooden Jacobean chimney piece. The Italian Room is finished with carved Quattrocento doors and damask covered walls.
The darkness in the rooms, a consequence of the Tudor architecture, plays a significant role in the work of Ates, whose ambiguously veiled female figures illuminate against the dramatic backdrop of rich, heavy drapery. The extreme contrast is one element employed by the artist in order to create the fluid, floating apparitions that have become synonymous with Ates’ work.
Ates herself is inspired by Dutch Old Master paintings and the darkness and intensity of the works on display are reminiscent of these masters of painting.
Her body of work comments on the Western notion of Orientalism and the effects of the cross pollination of cultures on female identity and architecture.
Ates questions the relationship between the veil and the West, and by setting the female veiled figure within a lush European interior, she subtly refers to the West’s mistaken ‘far-right’ interpretation of the veiled woman and refers back to the European traditions of veiled women as found in the work of Old Masters such as Vermeer.
By Marcelle Joseph
The exhibition runs until 17th December 2011Great Fosters Hotel, Stroude Road, Egham, Surrey TW20 9UR
Opening Hours: 10am - 6pm daily
Images
01 White and Blue, digital print, 2011
02 Blue Pigment, digital print, 2011
03 Green Veil, digital print, 2011