Güler Ates

Güler Ates works with Video, Photography, Printmaking and Performance. At the heart of her work lies an exploration into the experience of cultural displacement. Manifestations of Ates’s work are realised through performance and site-responsive activities that merge Eastern and Western sensibilities.

In the performances Ates makes a commentary on the Western notion of Orientalism and the effects of the cross-pollination of cultures on female identity and architecture. By setting the ambiguously veiled woman within the architecture of the Victoria & Albert Museum and Leighton House Museum, She interrogated the relationships between, not simply the veil and the ‘West’, but also between the museum and the ‘East’. In Ates’s images, the viewer is presented with the image of a veiled woman, yet the veil prevents classification or knowledge of the figure. It is not necessarily a hijab, nor a niqab, but it could be part of a sari or a wedding veil. This openness of possible readings illustrates the multi-faceted nature of the garment. The positioning of the figure within the domestic European interior in some of her works, further complicates interpretation by referencing European traditions of veiled women, such as those found in the work of Vermeer and Rembrandt. Ates also considers the veil in its historical context, going as far back as Mesopotamian culture, where wearing the veil was a sign of belonging to the higher ranks of society. She uses historical comparison to highlight social and political issues, especially those surrounding gender politics and the veil.

The architectural sites that Ates works within are of a particular era with specific links to colonialism, now post-colonialism, and the ‘East’, and she finds that they are interesting to work in, in their own right. Ates conducts research into the history of these sites, which informs the source of the fabric that becomes a costume or veil for her performing model to wear. As part of the performance, the subject tells a story drawn from the history of the site, exploring her feeling of cultural duality.