Process

This section contains materials related to the Blind Dates curatorial process including BD artist proposals, samples of their past work or, BD collaborative projects in progress.We begin with the texts/visuals submitted by the artists who participated at the inaugural public panel Loss and Melancholic Possibilities.

1. Linda Ganjian and Elif Uras
Ceramic Tiled Fountain
Proposal for Blind Dates
September 2009

Linda Ganjian and ElifUras, Navelstone, A functional ceramic-tile sculpture, 2010

We propose the creation of a ceramic tiled fountain that alludes to the interconnected histories of Armenians and Turks in the development of ceramic art traditions during the Ottoman Empire. The fountain, following Islamic and Christian architectural traditions, will have an octagonal structure and will be covered in original painted tiles. We were inspired by the role of fountains throughout the Middle East as a place to gather community–to begin a conversation.

Tile Sketch, Linda Ganjian

We share a cultural legacy in the ceramic traditions of Kutahya and Iznik, which under Ottoman patronage and with the artisanal talents of Turks and Armenians, among others, flourished in the 15-19th centuries. Armenians dominated the Kutahya industry in the 18-19th century until atrocities committed during World War I forced the relocation of some master ceramicists to Jerusalem, descendants of whom remain there today. Part of our intention is to bring tiles from these centers together, thus underscoring this shared legacy.

Our decision to collaborate was based on our shared interest in the recontextualization of Middle Eastern artistic traditions. Elif’s paintings conflate Western modernism with the bright colors and ornamental traditions of Turkish and Islamic art. In the past three years, at a residency in Iznik, Elif has also created ceramic vessels that incorporate the Iznik decorative vocabulary with the Western figurative tradition. Linda approaches the monumental through the accumulation of the miniature, creating large handcrafted sculptures that recreate Middle Eastern craft traditions such as carpet-weaving and calligraphy.

Our tiles will reinterpret the decorative traditions of Iznik and Kutahya. We will work with a variety of shapes to create abstract patterns; these tiles will mostly be white, turquoise and cobalt and will alternate between blocks of flat color and detailed motifs. Other tiles will reveal the complexity of the Armeno-Turkish relationship by featuring imagery encompassing familial and historical narratives.

The tiles will be produced in Iznik by Elif and in Jerusalem by Linda and then shipped to New York, where the structure will be fabricated. The edges of the structure will function as a platform which will allow the viewer to sit on and interact with the sculpture.

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2. Nina Katchadourian and Ahmet Öğüt
AH-HA
Proposal for Blind Dates
October 2009

Although we’ve only been set up on a blind date, we have decided to bind ourselves to one another for life.

Our project AH-HA is centered around the act of exchanging letters in our names. In a legalize transaction, we propose trading the two letters in our names that already overlap, namely, the “H” and the “A” in each of our names. We will trade one letter now (the A) and another letter later (the H), most likely upon the event of one of our deaths. The gesture might seem reminiscent of an organ donation or blood transfusion, only the even, reciprocal nature of the exchange creates a different dynamic: one of barter, trade, or rebalancing, rather than of donating or salvaging. The fact that one letter is exchanged now binds us into a contract with each other in the present. The fact that we must wait until some unknown point in the future for the other letter (and only at that point is our piece complete) places the piece in a kind of suspension.

Between ethnic groups or cultures that have been at odds, there is often the expectation that there will be a visible way to differentiate between them, when this is in fact very complicated and often untrue. The invisibility of the gesture is therefore very central to this project, and very much at the center of the concept. Nina Katchadourian would become Nina Katchadourian; Ahmet Öğüt would become Ahmet Öğüt, but embedded in our names would be these “foreign,” and ultimately assimilated, letters. We become guardians of one of each other’s letters now, but also promise to step up to this task in the future. We set this piece into motion in the present, but moving forward, by having exchanged one of the letters and then needing to wait for the other letter, the past and future will also always be “present”.

We will structure the exchange of our letter As as a contract, based on the legal concept of “consideration,” meaning “Something of value given by both parties to a contract that induces them to enter into the agreement to exchange mutual performances.” When something is merely gifted to someone else, it does not take on the structure of a contract. Perhaps paradoxically, we need each other’s letter As, in this case, in order to bind ourselves to one another such that we can exchange the letter Hs later. The exchange of the letter H would be based on the structure of a will. Both documents will be drawn up legally and will bear legitimate legal weight and responsibility.

Sample works from artists Nina Katchadourian and Ahmet Ögüt:

Excerpt from Accent Elimination, 2005. Six videos/monitors, three pedestals, headphones, seating. Courtesy of the artist and Sarah Meltzer Gallery

Ahmet Öğüt, Somebody Else’s Car, 2005. Slide projection, 20 pieces photo series, courtesy of the artist

3. Michael Blum and Damir Niksic
Oriental Dream
A proposal for Blind Dates, New York, 2010

Preferring to set up his own “blind date” for a collaboration, Michael Blum invited Damir Niksic to conceive a project together that tackled the Ottoman empire’s ruins from Bosnia to Palesrael. Once their collaboration set off, Blum and Niksic also extended their thoughts towards the idea how the Ottoman institutions, centralized in Istanbul, could provide a blanket solution to the many conflicts taking place on former Ottoman territory, from the Balkans, to Palesrael and Iraq – an extreme “One-State” solution to speak in Middle-Eastern terms, and started discussing Orientalism in general as well as Western accounts of “Oriental” life from the 19th and early 20th Century in particular, made of estrangement, fascination and condescendence. In their words: “Starting with common examples of representations of the Orient in Western popular culture, particularly in literature (from Albert d’Aix’s chronicle of the first crusade to Rebecca West’s trip to Yugoslavia), music (The Four Lads’ “Istanbul (not Constantinople)”) and film (Lawrence of Arabia), we would like to explore these fields further, in order to get a more precise image and find the most relevant material to work with. What interests us is how long-lasting clichés are crafted and softly enforced, and the humour that arises from the gap between the positivist belief in the West’s superiority up to the 1960′s, and the general skepticism, let alone bitter cynicism, of our generation. We would like to develop these thoughts into a new work to address the Ottoman legacy and its relevance for future generations, in the form of a whimsical short musical or music video, a journey sung and performed to illuminate the Westener’s gaze onto life under Ottoman rule.”

What resulted from their collaboration is Oriental Dream, a whimsical critique of Orientalism traces of which are still present throughout the Balkan landscape. Taking the fate of the Ottoman headgear–the fez–as a stereotypical or clichéd sign of the now -defunct empire, their work is crafted in the form of a short film where the two artists perform a duet reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy. It depicts a staged chase between the two artists that takes place in and out of the maze-like cobblestoned allies of Sarajevo, to parody the various odds of the East/West divide. The work makes us reflect upon the residues of Ottoman culture in contemporary life and the overall fate of an empire in ruins. Michael Blum is a Jerusalem-born Vienna -based artist. His work attempts to critically re-read the production of culture, myths, and history. Damir Niksic is a Stockholm-based conceptual artist from Sarajevo, whose work often addresses political and cultural issues that separate Eastern Europe from the West.

The white piano at the Holiday Inn in Sarajevo, where the war started. For the soundtrack of Oriental Dream, Samir Fejzic eventually played on one of the other pianos in the building, on a Yahama, as this one did not sound very good.