Digital animation. 4 works. 2021. Available on OpenSea.
As a Turkish artist, one might argue that Michelangelo is not among your ancestral inspirations. Even if you admired Jules Verne during your early years, you could not forget his origins. Eventually, a time comes when your "friends" claim that the world you inhabit does not belong to you. A citizen from a neighboring country merely 10 km away may be deemed part of a "civilization" despite their limited knowledge of "Da Vinci," while a talented person who loves Da Vinci deeply is deemed an outsider. It doesn't end there — some even have the gall to say, "the land you live in isn't yours either."
This series operates as counter-orientalism from within. The works — Belly Dance, Dance of Macron, Dance of Biden, Dance of the Artist as Janissary — do not simply invert the orientalist gaze. They occupy it, perform it, and hold a mirror to whoever arrives with their preconceptions intact.
The collection is a direct continuation of My Incidental Reincarnations (2016), extending that inquiry into the animated digital space. If history is a contested territory, the digital record is its newest battlefield.
Available on OpenSea. Contact for institutional licensing and exhibition rights.
My orientalism is better than yours /2/ Dance of Macron
My orientalism is better than yours /3/ Dance of Biden
My orientalism is better than yours /4/ Dance of the Artist as Janissary
My orientalism is better than yours /1/1Belly Dance