Double-headed Snake

Rampa presents Double-headed Snake, a exhibition of works by Nilbar Güreş in Rampa's street level project room from November 25 through December 30, 2016.

Prior to her extensive solo exhibition which will take place next year, the show represents a sampling of the artist's recent inclinations. The exhibition is comprised of sculptures and collage works never before shown in Istanbul, many of which she created for seminal shows at museums, institutions and biennials she participated in recently: including the Sao Paulo Biennial, Kingdom of Hours, (a show she participated in at Gasworks in London), as well as the work that was on display at 21er Haus Vienna, which led to her being awarded the BC21 Art Award last year.

The walls of the project room are painted in a soft hue and the window to the street draped, partially obscuring the contents of the exhibition. It is at once solitary and public, revealed and concealed—much like the artist's works themselves. The title of the show is suggestive, metaphoric, and too, the name of Güreş' sculpture which rests on a rock within the space. The work is a knit snake, rainbow patterns denoting its two heads. This work, and the others, hold their own subversive and subtle stories, asking the viewer to come close, read clues, and decipher what is being being told.

The exhibition is like a winter garden, an enclosed oasis telling private stories, with the sculpture, after which the show is titled, acting as a kind of reference point, a narrator.