Landscape of Silence

Best known for her large-scale, primitive-looking figures of women executed in terracotta, Azade Köker has also successful produced works of photography in recent years. Her photographs are closely linked to her sculptures in terms of content and expressive language. A straightforward but intelligent relationship between the ‘simple’ and ‘primitive’ can be observed in her work. This work, entitled ‘Landscape of Silence,’ explores how reality and illusion can be seen at the same time. This is a forest landscape in which we are confined. The composition, where skulls are superimposed, refers to ‘bodily division’ –as the artist puts it–, isolation, and beauty. This arrangement also connotes transience and an ‘end.’ The artist chooses to call this unknown future ‘third world.’ This is an area where events beyond human control may happen. The work leads us to reflect on the impact of the skulls and of the ‘silent’ natural landscape, on cycles that complete themselves such as death and destruction.