Elif Uras
Elif Uras makes figurative and narrative paintings, drawings and
china. Being Turkish and living in New York, her subject matter deals
with both an in- and outsider’s view on the Eastern and Western world.
An orientalist’s stereotyped Western view on the East, and the
occidentalist’s Eastern view on the West. Her works reveal a hybrid
world of the oriental, sensual, exotic body in a capitalist, liberal
and secular world.
Headscarved women, nudes, developers, NRA supporters, day labours,
hammam bathers, newly weds, Hispanic nannies and belly dancers populate
her paintings. Politics, economy, desire and hedonism is as intertwined
as Uras’ use of ornamentation. The excess and decadence of the motifs
is reflected in the shiny surfaces of the canvasses. A shine generated
by Uras’ generous use of moulding paste underneath the vibrant colours
of oil, allowing also a formal and tactile opulence to occur.
Elif Uras refers to the Western art history in her work.
Rococco, History Painting, Post-Impressionalism, Art Nouveau, Symbolism
and Surrealism are some of the references in general, and in particular
Fragonard's swing, van
Gogh’s skies, Chagall’s horses, Hundertwasser’s patterns, Klimt's
pointillistic ornamentation, Otto Dix’ figures, Ingres’ oriental women.
All these Western elements are placed in 16th century Ottoman
architecture or framed by an arabesque. History is dismantled, sampled
and joined in the co-existence of two different traditions. In this
different perspective, art history is turned upside down.
Elif Uras works with and from a different perspective. Not only a
different perspective on art history and on the clichés about the East
and the West. But also literally a different perspective. Horisontal
lines are pushed far up, a landscape is depicted from a looping
airplane’s point of view. It is a supernatural perception of the world,
a dreamy one. Mirrors, windows, paintings within the painting make it
difficult to distinguish what is inside and what is outside. The
illusion of a real space is superseded by the notion of an imaginary
space – underlined by the arabesque pattern, which is said to extend
beyond the visible, material world.
