Intervention looks at the symbiotic relationship between human involvement in the landscape and the resilience of nature and how it can work together to create a balanced environment. The piece is centred on the suggestion of a column or monument and the attached symbolic inferences that have gained particular importance recently with the widespread imagery of Independence Square, Kiev.
Gezi Park, 2013 Claiming this island as a site for artistic intervention initiated an interest into the long history of claiming land from the commons and feudal distribution of land to recent socio-political events where public space is used and occupied by people as a sign of protest and activism. The commons, or common land, has existed in some form since medieval ages when green space was allocated to a collective of people with which they could exert certain rights such as rights of pasture. Nowadays we see these spaces in the form of village greens or city parks where people can come together and meet within a non-threatening, comfortable environment. During the spring of 2013 riots broke out in Turkey when the government attempted to take away one of the few remaining green spaces on the European side of Istanbul. The potential transformation of Gezi Park into a shopping centre caused outrage amongst the public, showing the intrinsic value of public space. People claimed back their collective land by occupying the space in protest. A kind of spontaneous architecture arose from people’s settlement in the park with structures to facilitate daily activities and communication of thoughts and monuments to stake their claim on the land like the adornment of flags on Atatßrk Cultural Centre.