Rosa Damascena / House of Roses, 2023
Installation (Cloth, latex, rose thorns, rose petals, dead skin, copper wire, metal pipe, chain), 270 cm x 240 cm
This installation consists of a single curtain, on which rose thorns, dried rose petals, and dead skins/scabs are sewn, extending to the floor and dividing the space in two. The title of the work comes from a rose species “Isparta Rose” which was started to be produced by immigrants in the late 19th century during the reign of Abdülhamid II and then systematically produced in Anatolia with state encouragement, known by many different names such as Arabian rose, Oil rose, Bulgarian rose, Damascus rose, Mastic rose, Isfahan rose, which generally refer to geography, and which is itself a hybrid (by grafting two different rose varieties).
Rosa Damascena emerged in a process in which I’ve been thinking about the relationship between vulnerability, mourning, domestication, and violence.
The rose thorns attached to latex surfaces resembling both skin and a topography, spread like stains on the surface of the curtain reminiscent of a hospital atmosphere. On the other surface of the curtain, the patterns of dried rose petals and dead skins/scabs that I peeled from my own body, which look like embroidered motifs that remind one of domestic life at home when viewed from a distance, repeat. I sewed both these motifs and the thorny latex textures onto the curtain with copper and metal wires.
The thorns and dead skin create a surface/border that is difficult to touch.
The rose thorns I used in the installation were taken from Gülhane Park, which was the rose garden of the Ottoman Palace, and later the first public park of the city, where the Tanzimat Edict was proclaimed, and where mostly the pious population spent time today. The dead skins I used are scabs that I have accumulated for a long time, which have thickened over time due to psoriasis.
While using rose petals and thorns, I took into consideration the different symbolic meanings of the rose in Eastern and Western civilizations. Especially the red rose, besides its many different meanings in popular culture, is widely used in the emblems of parties with leftist ideology as a symbol of socialism, while it is an image I remember from the emblems of Islamic political parties because it is the symbol of Prophet Muhammad (in miniatures, the rose is often used instead of the prophet's image).
Today, in this increasingly introverted geography, ”House of Roses” evokes the atmosphere of mourning created by the ideologies of power, and the socio-political climate that infiltrates and positions itself in the heart of domestic life has turned into a social wound. I hope that all these materials I have brought together hold the possibility of healing as they form a heterogeneous new skin/texture that evokes a new topography.
