Lost Heaven Fantasy 2014
This project addresses the question “Why can’t we change the bodies in which we exist over time? Based on this question, it is a self-portrait project that I fulfill in order to complete my desire to question my own existential self through another body using the body of a friend like me. It is a sense of questioning our own reincarnation when we realize that we are watching ourselves while we are sleeping or living.
SpaceWomb 2012
The type of this series is self-portrait and focusing on being an adopted child never knew a biological family, with this awareness, artist subconscious is questioning her existence in her very own space, taking the position of an embryo in empty space try to recreate being in the mother’s womb position of an embryo.
Eid-Al-Adha 2015
Turkey is a Muslim country as it known, Eid Al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), one of two major holidays in Muslim religion. The holiday is believed to originate from the myth of Abraham, who attempted to sacrifice his innocent son, Isaac, for God but was instead sent a ram from the sky. Korkmaz’s crisp but tender approach to this myth in Eid al-Adha series builds a parallel between the sacrificed and the queer body, in Isaac and Korkmaz’s embodiment of the martyr. The works further chronicle the slaughter process with shots that maneuver between grotesque and abstract. The unfiltered brutality practiced on the animal yields emotionally distressing, yet formally non-figurative shots—questioning photography’s role for documentation and introspection. Rendered in intimate or immersive scales, the photographs convey a corporal exposure, both on metaphorical and tangible layers.
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by COCA.
Cansu Korkmaz
Turkey
Turkish-born artist Cansu Korkmaz (1989, Istanbul) lives and works in Brooklyn. She graduated from Bahçeşehir University in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in Photography and Video. Her works has been featured at venues such as UFAT-Signals and Systems, ALAN Istanbul, BAU Gallery, “The lives of others” for International Photography Festival, Daire Gallery, Les Rencontres D’arles, On the Frontiers of Freedom, she was selected for a personal documentary workshop with an artist at SALT. Her solo exhibitions include “Mini Çarşı-Mini Market” at The Poligon Shooting Gallery in Turkey and “Quite a While” at SOHO20 Gallery in New York. She had been selected for School of Visual Arts-Artist Residency, residency exhibition at Gramercy Gallery in New York and Residency Unlimited, Discrimination and Marginalization-Artist Residency in New York. During the residency she crated her last project “KINA” and exhibited at Equity Gallery in New York.