installations by G U L S E N
G O K S E L
Memory Calls II: There Is No Verse
Photography and Video are inherently personal to me; I connect and converse with my family through them. This is a fundamental act because there are voices in my mind that are sometimes difficult to say out loud. With this image, I want to speak about being a muslim woman, the memory and limitation within life as me. My name is Gulsen Goksel. I was born 19th of May 1966 in Izmir, Turkey to two immigrant parents from a greek island. I grew up with my parents, I listened about the limitations on life against expectations of becoming the new citizens of the Republic of Turkey. My mother couldn’t finish her primary education, it was a negative impact on her expectations and aspirations, I listened to her stories on how this was a burden caused by her being a female. My father was a sergeant who went to the US and European countries for the NATO project. While my father was on assignments abroad, my mother took care of my her in-laws family members. She stayed and worked, not a single sound. I watched and I couldn’t argue against her limitation under her husband’s arrogance for my entire childhood. Her childhood in the 1940s landed after contemporary Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk died. Ataturk’s plan of education was based in equal opportunities for both sexes, provided to be valid with Village Institutes. (1)
Nevertheless, in the period of material deprivation after his death; with the lack of teachers and financial obstacles, education was handled by religious activity in rural areas. The mosques fed rural backwardness on fatalism and religious bigotry. This situation destroyed Mustafa Kemal’s ideal for good and equal education. (2) The educational system and Turkish Civil Law shaped both of our personalities. Naturally, the social structure of Turkey’s society was opposed to any change. The misleading modifications brought limits to the female population, and religious beliefs got buried deeper into who we were. Turkish women are too busy to concentrate on unequal physical existence; they have accepted discrimination. Until last year, my religion was written on my ID card; my surname was my husband’s. The feeling of limitation; and to prove that I am a woman as meticulously as I am a human, is the reason I decided to create this project. Islamic rules have tied me down, because I’m woman. “There is no Verse” is part of my series “Memory Calls II”. I’m sharing all females fate from my country, who’s beliefs follow islamic rules imprudently. Do these woman suffer due to their personal choices, do they get to decide, is it obedience or fidelity? (1) Re-Enchanting Education and Spiritual Wellbeing: Fostering Belonging and ... herausgegeben von Marian de Souza, Anna Halafoff (2) Nationalism, Modernization and the “Woman Question” in the Late Ottoman Empire and the Early Turkish Republic from the Perspective of the “Ideal/New Turkish Women” , Sebahat Sonmez Poyraz (3) The Reception of the Swiss civil code in Turkey, V elidedeoglu, H.V.
The exhibition is divided into two rooms. The entrance to the hall is a black corridor that extends to the first room. The wide room has two parallel walls on the right; there is a human-sized photo, and on the left side, there is a projector playing a looped video that shows how the picture was created. I believe in presenting an accurate depiction of the world created, and also to recount a mediated version of the project. The tension between these poles lies at the heart of discussions of photography’s effectiveness as a medium for narrative. The room is connected to another darkroom, there is a big screen and a video continuously playing, named: “An-Nisa”. As with other representational art forms, this video can be realist, in the sense that it can use all the artistic means at its disposal to create a believable scene that reflects on our everyday experiences. The video that I recorded with my voice is spelling four verses of An-Nisa chapter from the Quran. Importantly, symbolic objects and movements and the voice recordings conceptually express my limitation, and they have indirectly synthesized today’s politics into engagements with speculations about future identities and intimacy. The red ribbon is a symbol of virginity, which has four verses from An-Nisa handwritten with white paint. The other symbolic acts are; tying some verses from the Quran onto the naked body, which is banned in Islam. My focus upwards represents the Islamic belief that Allah is watching us from the sky. After the video screen hall, the exhibition end leading an exit into the real world. One of the videos shows the realization phase of the project, which is called: https://youtu.be/U0RSAeqpm1U
Digital Fine Art Pigment on Paper Print 24x72 in
An Nisa 4:11 Allah commands you as regards your children’s (inheritance); to the male, a portion equal to that of two females; if (there are) only daughters, two or more, their share is two thirds of the inheritance; if only one, her share is half. 4:24 “And all married women (are forbidden unto you to marry) except those whom your right hands possess (by Allah’s decree in the battle against infidels). It is a written legislation of Allah unto you; and lawful for you are (all women) besides those that you may seek (them) by means of your wealth (as dower) taking them into marriage and not committing fornication. Then as to those of whom you seek content (by temporary marriage), give them their dowries as a duty; and there is no blame on you in whatever you mutually agree after the duty. Verily Allah is All-Knowing, AllWise.” 4:34 “Men have authority over women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property (for the support of women). Therefore, the good women are obedient, guarding the rest unseen as Allah has guarded.
And (as to) those (women) on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and avoid them in beds and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; verily Allah is Ever-High, Ever-Great.�
4:6 of the Qjlran says, “Make trial of orphans until they reach the age of marriage ... “ From this verse it can be deduced that the contract of marriage can be entered by only when a man or a woman has attained majority or marriageable age. According to Fyzee (1964) majority is attained at puberty and the presumption for the age of puberty is fifteen years. However, according to Hedaya (al-Marghinani 1982), the earliest age of majority for a boy is twelve years and for a girl it is nine years. As the contract of Islamic marriage insists on the free consent of the parties, only a person of sound mind can enter into marriage relationships. adjective. If you describe something as provocative, you mean that it is intended to make people react angrily or argue against it. He has made a string of outspoken and sometimes provocative speeches in recent years. Synonyms: offensive, provoking, insulting, challenging More Synonyms of provocative.