1997 snapshot of Thai snake charmer/
1880 detail from Gerome’s oil painting “Snake Charmer”
94 x 124 cm./2011 digital print 100 x 130
1998 Internet image/1999 colored photocopy/1998 digital print
People often model their appearances after the expectations of those in power. They try to give tourists what they want and look like what they expect.
100 x 130 cm.
1997 Taksim, Istanbul, tea shop photograph and
1955 Rauschenberg combine, “Interview”
1998/2011
In 1997, Atakan took photographs of a teashop in Taksim located across from the old Park Hotel construction site because she found a similarity between the facade and Rauschenberg’s combines. Just like Rauschenberg, the tea man collected interesting objects that had been discarded on the streets. While neither knew one another, it was as if he, like Rauschenberg, was trying to bridge the gap between life and art. By 2010 the teashop had expanded into the Park Hotel construction site. The tea man changed the decorations in his labyrinth-like tea house regularly, but the same aesthetic continued.
digital print 94 x 124 cm.
taken from 2010 Istanbul photograph and
1964 Rauschenberg combine, “Press”
2010
digital print 94 x 124 cm.
taken from 2010 Istanbul photograph and
1963 Rauschenberg combine, “Untitled”
2010
digital print 94 x 124 cm.
taken from 2010 Istanbul photograph and
1957 Rauschenberg combine, “Factum II”
2010