Exhibition
Nilbar Güres: Window Commission - Rivington Place
Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) is pleased to announce a new commission by artist Nilbar Güres, for Rivington Place's front window. This is the first solo presentation of the artist's work in the UK following her recent inclusion in the 6th Berlin Biennial. Güres, who lives and works between Vienna and Istanbul, produces theatrical tableaux of women, moving between performance and the everyday. Using a range of media including photography, she subverts representations of femininity and cultural identity.
For her new commission at Rivington Place the artist shows a photographic composition in four panels entitled Beekeeper. The central panel features a woman standing in an idyllic orchard setting, her face and body concealed by layers of clothing including a beekeeper's suit and head scarf. In the surrounding panels, these items of clothing have been cast off and hang from the trees nearby. In a playful and suggestive way, this work explores the complex relationship between female identity and social norms, and how this is expressed through clothing and unclothing.
In another series of recent works entitled 'Uberkannte Sportaten' (Unknown Sports), (2009) Güres invited women to choose a sport that would act as a metaphor of how they feel about their lives. This culminated in a performance which became the basis of photographs and a film, featuring women of different ages and backgrounds, dressed in costume and involved in various physical activities.
NB This film will be screened for one night only on 9 December, 7pm at Rivington Place.
