The Istanbul Modern is the new kid on the museum block in Istanbul. Situated on the Bosphorus in a converted ware-house, this is the place to check out what the contemporary art scene in Turkey has to offer. I went to go see this
new exhibition "In Praise of Shadows." Ceylan has been working at the museum as part of her research, so I wanted to check out what she has been up to! The exhibition was pretty cool; some of the artists fit into the theme of shadows pretty well, like the art of Kara Walker (right), whose black and white cut outs from the Civil War era allow us to indulge in horrific scenes that evoke sub-conscious shame, pleasure, and an embarrassing fascination with all things disturbing. They also had a lot of really cool old animated movies. I spent hours watching cut-out puppets perform the Magic Flute! Other artists just barely make it into the shadow category--pencil drawings of naked women superimposed onto drawings of factories? Anyway, I thought it was cool that the exhibition is held in conjunction with a section on "Karagoz" a folk tradition of Turkish shadow puppet theater. Hopefully I can go see a live presentation later this semester.
The Istanbul Modern is the new kid on the museum block in Istanbul. Situated on the Bosphorus in a converted ware-house, this is the place to check out what the contemporary art scene in Turkey has to offer. I went to go see this 
new exhibition "In Praise of Shadows." Ceylan has been working at the museum as part of her research, so I wanted to check out what she has been up to! The exhibition was pretty cool; some of the artists fit into the theme of shadows pretty well, like the art of Kara Walker (right), whose black and white cut outs from the Civil War era allow us to indulge in horrific scenes that evoke sub-conscious shame, pleasure, and an embarrassing fascination with all things disturbing. They also had a lot of really cool old animated movies. I spent hours watching cut-out puppets perform the Magic Flute! Other artists just barely make it into the shadow category--pencil drawings of naked women superimposed onto drawings of factories? Anyway, I thought it was cool that the exhibition is held in conjunction with a section on "Karagoz" a folk tradition of Turkish shadow puppet theater. Hopefully I can go see a live presentation later this semester.
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