I won the Arts & Culture Achievement Award at the Ceftus!
I am honoured to have won this award at the Ceftus 2019 following a second consecutive nomination. This award is given to those who had significant influence in the arts and culture as well as community engagement.
States of Existence – Exhibition
It has been a wonderful journey co-curating ‘States of Existence’ exhibition exploring mental health and systemic causes of the taboos surrounding them. We have selected 25 artists from diverse background some of which are currently inpatients at psychiatric institutions. Exhibition took place at the Well Space which was launched recently as a response to the gentrification and the loss of local public spaces in Hackney. It all has been made possible by the generous people donating their time, skills and resources. A true power of the community!
Exhibition Statement:
S T A T E S OF EXISTENCE
|10-15 October 2019|
States of Existence showcases transitory works from humans who express themselves through art to convey varied experiences of human life in the complex world we live in today. The 25 featured artists dive deep into human existence whilst raising an array of important questions.
Breaking the stigma surrounding *mental health* is challenging in the binary narrative of normal/abnormal, healthy/unhealthy and well/unwell. We examine why & how the stigmas were created in the first place.
The works on show explore physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual or racial adversity of the modern human life while looking into the establishment and perpetuation of these difficulties by the historical abusive assertion of power and control through psychiatry.
The creation and fetishization of a ‘perfect mind’ through the advent of capitalist societies has mental illness reduced to ‘individual’ chemical imbalances; today the possible economic, social and systematic causes of such difficulties are rarely discussed. We feel lonelier more than ever. This exhibition aims to bring us together in a stigma free, safe space to evoke thought and initiate important conversations we all desperately need.
I was nominated for the Arts&Culture Achievement Award at the CEFTUS
I didn’t win but the real prize was Corbyn reading a poem from famous Turkish exile poet Nazim Hikmet. Jeremy Corbyn was awarded a life long achievement award at the ceremony.
Performing on the Olivier Stage – National Theatre
I was fortunate enough to join the very few actors who stood up on the Olivier Stage of National Theatre. 1200 people, standing ovation and tears.
Sandburn is out for festival run.
I am playing the lead; Dr. Sasha, an ambitious archeologist in this tomb raiding sci-fi directed by Andrew Ellinas filmed at the Warner Brothers Studios London.
‘Eye’ will be in exhibition at London’s Soho as a part of Winter Pride Art Awards Finalist
I am one of the 17 finalists for this years Winter Pride Art Awards – Beyond the Binary taking place at The St. Barnabas House London. Details of the exhibition can be found here: http://www.artlyst.com/previews/beyond-binaries-winter-pride-art-awards-announce-finalists/. Thank you everyone who turned up at the PV and endured the mad cue! (1300 people!)
Winner! 21st National Open Art Exhibition at the Oxo Tower Southbank
Eye won the Visitor’s Choice Award at the NOA’17. I was selected to be exhibit my work ‘Eye’ from a whopping 3600 entrants at the heart of London, Southbank alongside Damien Hirst, Gavin Turk and Sir Peter Blake. Eye is a piece about female oppression, East & West binary and censorship.
Filming Crossing Over with Louise Jameson
I was lucky to be cast as Lea Letts and act besides British legend that is Louise Jameson. Crossing Over is a dark comedy directed by Mark Haldor http://www.imd
b.com/name/nm6957645/
71. Venice Film Festival
A little frame from this years Venice Film Festival. Red Carpet event of the ‘The Cut’ by Fatih Akin. Venice has its own magic about it, when the magic of cinema arrives it feels like the magical realism is present every second. Cant wait for next year…
Under The Skin by Jonathan Glazer – A small read on the film
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT
Under The Skin is a Sci-Fi thriller based on a novel by Michel Faber. The adaptation is fascinating in terms of British director Jonathan Glazer’s rich visual language and how he layers his film with symbols and metaphors around its interesting plot.
“A voluptuous woman of unknown origin combs the highway in search of isolated or forsaken men, luring a succession of lost souls into an otherworldly lair. They are seduced, stripped of their humanity, and never heard from again.”
The film opens with as a small white dot in the middle of total darkness. It is neither explained nor reasoned with by any scientific narrative (unlike many Sci-Fi scripts). I wondered what the link was about until the mid-part of the film. The metaphor may have been the “light at the end of the tunnel”. This “light at the end of the tunnel” visually makes a lot more sense once you enter the nameless female alien’s “black cave of desire”. Now, this “Fatalien” (that’s the name I have given her- a drive from fatale+alien) is a walking talking Siren Call. A (literally!) deadly desire object that drives men (she literally drives them, too) into her life. Men gradually get naked following their desire object and get drowned in a black liquid. After witnessing a couple of these men getting lost in this black liquid, we finally see what is inside. It is created by Glazer as a completely dark place where men hang naked in dense liquid. They are shown in a “primal position”, like embryos in their mother’s womb. The place where this “prey” ends up is a metaphorical womb. A reverse birth. They enter the house fully clothed, get naked, step into the liquid and get finally sucked empty, leaving behind only their skin, having turned into “a piece of meat” – just how we all started. Here, I believe Glazer plays with Sigmund Freud’s popular argument that for men having coitus is like going back to the safe and peaceful place of the “womb”, where they existed before suffering the trauma of “birth’. We were all born with this trauma. Leaving the 36 degree warm and safe womb and entering a colder environment, breathing for the first time. The poignant nature of oxygen in our lungs. The pain in our eyes from light after pitch darkness.We don’t remember these (at least I don’t!), but on an unconscious level our emotion memory remembers this trauma and may register life as shaped by “trauma and pain”. That’s why men pursue to go back to a pre-birth stage through coitus. Hence the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
When the “fatalien” is an emotionless alien preying on men, she appears strong and predator-like.As soon as she starts to develop emotions, however, she becomes vulnerable and weak. The more she is ‘humanized’, the weaker she becomes. And at the end she finds herself subjected to a rape attack by a male. Again an amazing coincidence?! She could only protect herself from this sexual attack by becoming “the alien” again. So what does the director tell us here about women, desire and life?
Representation of Women in West and East
I am currently working on a multi medium project I have created on how women are repressed in different ways in both East and West.
We assume that Western women are free. Are they really so? What are the stereotype images that women are framed into?
After all whats the aesthetic of burka? This project focuses on metaphorical and iconographical contrasts.
Here is a behind the scenes photo from our latest shoot. Boys def enjoy Burka! It is the ultimate disguise after all…
The Mehmefemi’s
Recently, I have been cast as “Tuba” the annoying, old fashioned cousin of the Mehmet Family. The series are directed by Steve Finn (Eastenders, Hollyoaks…)
Well, lets see how annoying i can be?
Studying Method Acting in New York.
My path in acting has taken a new turn with Eric Morris’s Acting system. Fortunate enough to be accepted to the Bova actors workshop and learn this psychoanalytic approach to acting. Freeing ourselves as actors is the best creative source. We carry the burden of social taboos, previous cognitive behavioral experiences and self consciousness. My already existing interest in psychoanalysis has helped me to welcome this approach and I am enjoying it deeply. New York itself is a stage and lets see where this journey takes me to. Eric Morris has worked with actors such as Jack Nicholson who is known with his authentic performances!
MC CREED profile photo
On 31st of December, the very last day of Maya year:) i took some photos for Urban Nerds. All I can say is how I am amazed by MC Creed’s performance and his aura as performer. You can tell from the photo, he is real charm to the camera
Home Office – Act Against Crime
To see the film please click the link : Sheep Skin https://vimeo.com/41279109
Sheep Skin is a film made by young people with filmmaker Mustafa Boğa and Tuğba Tirpan within the Act Against Crime project.
Act Against Crime is a Balik Arts project funded by Home Office CAGGK Fund and aims to engage young people aged 12-15 in filmmaking. Throughout the project, held in the first quarter of 2012, young people worked with professionals from the film industry and were instructed on various stages of filmmaking, from script writing through casting to shooting and editing. They also had the opportunity to gain experience of a range of technologies and exposure to role models in this vibrant industry. Exploring the current reality of their lives, the participants, largely from Turkish and Kurdish backgrounds, were able to express themselves through the exciting medium of film, which resulted in the production of a short film.
My photo of James Norris Founder of DeadSoci.al is on The Guardian Culture
To read the full article please go to;
http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/features/interview-james-norris-of-deadsocial/
Goz ve Beden. (DENEME)
Yasamin neresinde duruyorum diye dusundu kalabaligin ortasinda, her gecen kisinin hayatini, geçmişini, aşklarını, nereden geldiğini ve nereye gidiyor olabileceğini, nelere güldüğünü nelere üzüldüğünü hayal etmeye çalıştı, çıldıracak gibi oluyordu. 10 milyonluk bir şehirde yapılası iş değildi onunki. Aceba kendi hayatından kaçmak için miydi başkalarınınkine olan ilgisi? Normalde düşünebileceğimiz ama düşünmemeyi tercih ettiğimiz kaç bilgi vardi sokakta? Kac tanesi yanımızdan geçiyor, metroda karşımıza oturuyordu? Yıllardır görmediğin eski aşkın yanından geçince buna ilahi tesaduf diyor kadere bağlıyorken hergun sehirde rastlantısal olarak karşılaştığın bakıştığın kisiler neden bir ilahi tesadüf olmuyordu? Bunları düşündükce iyice tedirgin oldu, beyni ondan bağımsız çalışan bir anti-şehirciydi sanki. Beynin açık unutulmuş bir kamera olduğunu savunurdu hep, tek farkla pili bitmiyordu ama ısınıyordu. Düşündü, 10 milyonluk bir şehirde hergün sokağa çıkıyorum, gördüğüm ama dikkat bile etmediğim onlarca surat ve kıyafetleri, renkleri beynimin bir yerinde kayıtlı duruyordu. Bundan mıydı aceba sürekli hissetigi yalnızlık duygusu?
Yanından gecen onca insanin yabanci oldugunu kabullenip, artık yanından gecip gitmeyenleri yani kalanları da yabancı gibi gormesi bundan mıydı? Oyleya, beynindeki diger suratlardan ne farkı vardı yanındakilerin? Onlar da bir surat, et ve formdu aynı diğerleri gibi, bir an için eğildi kendi ellerine vucuduna bakti, yine bir yabancıya bakar gibi oldu, korktu gözü ile bedeni arasinda giderek açılan mesafeden…
Tugba Tirpan
Londra, 2012.