Cultural Life, Arts and Expression: Canan

“In the past, female artists were afraid of calling themselves feminists since they thought they would be discriminated against by men. Now I see that female artists do not hesitate to call themselves feminists. While defending their rights, women do not refrain from openly talking about and discussing their problems. I observe that male domination in the arts is coming to an end. Among the internationally recognised Turkish artists, women are in majority. I see more women collectors. More than half of the collectors who purchase my works are women.

Ten years ago, although there were women working in arts institutions, the directors were mostly men. These days, women directors are a majority at important art institutions. I personally do not want to be called a female artist. Just as we do not refer to artists who are men as male artists, we should not refer to artists who are women, as female artists. An artist is simply an artist. An artist’s work is independent of one’s sex, race or age. I observe that this distinction is gradually vanishing among the new generation of artists. In our days, there was a struggle to be waged, now they are aware of their natural rights and they produce their works more comfortably. This implies that there was great progress in the last ten years, and that some issues have become too old-fashioned to be even discussed by the artistic community. It seems like there is an equal footing.

Personally, I learnt to unburden myself of feeling like a victim and learnt to value myself as an individual. As long as I know my own worth, I do not care if someone tries to pressure me about it or label me with adjectives. I am destroying the male-domination in my head. I determine my own worth and I am valuable. This has nothing to do with gender. I would also like to add that I am very happy to be a woman with all my lust and desires.“

CANAN, yes just Canan. Canan, having always taken a political stance in every period of her art practice, prefers not to use a surname that one assumes either from the father or the husband; and instead, she continues making her art as CANAN. She examines oppression of gender roles by the patriarchy in her work in various fields such as photography, miniature, video and performance. She creates works that criticize the oppression of women in Turkey. The fact that she has works and exhibitions which have been censored since they were found to be dangerous, both in Turkey and abroad, does not stop the artist from doing what she believes in.

She uses her body in her works and responds to the transformation of the female body into an object of political and artistic seduction, by transforming her own body into artistic material. She highlights the norms imposed on the female body, by giving space in her works to the feelings of dissatisfaction and inadequacy, created by the perception of beauty generated by dominant ideologies, since they standardize women and female bodies.