1971, Kaman. Lives in İstanbul and Amsterdam.

An apartment in the Deniz Palas venue provides the perfect domestic environment for this series of works by Koçyiğit. The installation comprises little touches of magic that transform everyday items and form a dialogue between separate works. In the entrance hall, a broom, its brush a wig of hair – a literal translation of a Turkish idiom used by wives to express anger at their husbands – sweeps past on its tour of the apartment. In another room stands a fridge, its door, which is held ajar, is referred to in the crocheted text work: ‘Sometimes I check the fridge ten times to see if it is really closed’. The laboriousness and repetition of such paranoia is reflected in the intricate stitching, undertaken by two old ladies, to contain a phrase that can be read and checked via the fridge time and time again. The fridge is empty save its egg rack, which is laden with jewels. These found treasures generate a similar childish delight to the realisation that in Koçyiğit’s photographic interpretation of a lowly rag and bone man, the cart the man pushes contains a lit and dazzlingly beautiful chandelier.
Koçyiğit’s initial influence – the daily routine of a Turkish housewife – governs the installation providing a narrative of everyday existence conditioned by cultural convention and tradition. Yet this conjured character also reveals eccentricities and enchantment to be found in the ordinary and mundane. As the wife’s imaginary presence filters from one room to the next, objects and appliances come to life and her private, internal world merges with the vitality of the streets outside.

November Paynter

DENİZ PALAS APARTMENTS