Şerife 6, 7, 8

İpek Duben holds degrees from the University of Chicago (MA), the New York Studio School, and Mimar Sinan University (PhD) and she has also studied political science and sociology. Her educational background informs her work, as she focuses on issues of identity, especially women’s social identity, and on a critical investigation of social and political problems. Duben works with various media including installation, sculpture, painting and video art. ‘Şerife 6-7-8’ is a triptych of three women’s dresses in which Duben makes a statement about a woman’s struggle to establish her social identity. The dresses in the painting are not just presented as garments: looking closely at various details and clues we realize that the dresses are not empty for ‘someone’ is wearing them. But we can’t see who. Like real women in a real society, Duben’s ‘Şerife’ is both concealed and revealed by the identity that enfolds her.