NIGTH SHIFT, 1987

NIGTH SHIFT, 1987 C-Print 144 x 112 cm

These are black and white photographs came out of a period I worked for Cengiz Çekil making Atatürk statues during 1986-1988. Çekil, a professor at art faculty in Izmir and one of the leading conceptual artists of his time in Turkey kept a speakeasy sculpture studio where he made commission works to supplement his salary as an academician. I have worked in his sculpture studio as an assistant, building Atatürk statues commissioned by different municipals for their plazas. Acutely aware of the conflict between his conceptual works and commission works, Çekil tried to keep his artistic practice completely separate but it was impossible. We spent hours each night after school wrestling with the sheer scale of the sculpture as well as clay, polyester or plaster while discussing art history, western contemporary art, art theory, conventional art scene in Turkey and how we were going to overthrow it. To close home he did not consider these statues as art and never showed anything about them but I disagreed with it and generated a series of works stem from my experience building those status. V.A.