Toplu: Landscapes of New Turkish Suburbia project statement

STATEMENT ON PROJECT Toplu: Landscapes of New Turkish Suburbia is a long-term ongoing project. It was begun in 2008, and works from the project were first exhibited in 2009 in a solo exhibition at the (old) Art Gallery at Cleveland State University. This exhibition featured works photographed in 2008 and 2009. However this did not mark the completion of the project. I returned and made new photographs in 2010, 2011 and 2013. I will continue the work in the coming years. The title of the project has not changed, resulting in similarly named exhibitions. Solo exhibition titles are amended to include the date range of work included. Each solo, two-person, and three-person shows (as well as most group exhibitions in which multiple works are exhibited) included pieces that were previously not exhibited. The culmination of the project is intended to be a monograph book. ARTIST'S STATEMENT I have a long-standing interest in the cultural landscape of residential areas. My previous work includes an extended project on the suburban landscapes of Midwestern America. I looked at delineations and borders - how residents and planners defined their spaces against the perceived chaos of the outside world. I first traveled to Turkey in 2004 and have returned many times since. In this landscape, I began to see many parallels to my previous work played out on an exaggerated scale. In 2008, I began photographing the rapidly changing landscape of these far-flung, densely populated regions on the suburban outskirts. I was initially struck by the Toplu Konut, developments of large scale mass-residences. In these photographs, many are still under construction - plopped down into empty fields at a startling pace. Others are tidy high-rise condominium clusters that are self-contained with their own restaurants, schools, shops, swimming pools, tennis courts, and playgrounds. Within their walls they are meticulously landscaped and manicured. Toplu, the title of the project, has the dual meaning of 1. mass, common; as well as 2. tidy or neat. These modern, hyper-planned, enclosed developments are usually built on inexpensive land. This land has usually already been settled by people who've migrated to cities from rural villages. Here, they have built gecekondu, homes constructed without permits on public land. Turkish law makes these structures difficult to remove once they are in place. The term "gecekondu" literally means "built overnight", a reference to their quick, unplanned and stealthy construction. These photographs don't depict the ancient palaces, mosques, and ruins of guidebooks. This is the everyday Turkey of a rising middle class, heavily influenced by Western Europe and the United States. This is also the Turkey of displaced migrants, shantytowns and gentrification. This is the site where they intersect.