A BOLLARD -MADE OF BONES-
The work aims to illuminate the hidden agents of a little urban condition. It focuses on a nonhuman-centric relationship between three daily actors and creates a temporary, uncanny, mysterious scene.
In 2019, The New York Times estimated that in Istanbul alone, a megacity of 15 million people, there are thought to be 130,000 dogs and 125,000 cats roaming free. The strayed animals in Istanbul streets are fed and cared based on a network of care and cultural traditions of feeding animals by the city inhabitants. While Istanbul's urbanization and modernization process excluded and outlawed many actors, cats as nonhuman agents are the lucky ones who earn their crucial part in the city's daily life. As another agent, concrete bollards on the roads are designed as regulating and controlling devices. The half sphere-shaped ones are the most common bollards, mainly made of concrete with heavy bases. These overlooked objects are primarily associated with rules, permanency, and sterilization of urban daily life.
The other bollard' finds a forgotten space between two bollards and mimics the other urban elements around it. Even though the shape and the size of the bollard match with the other bollards, it is made of the leftover bones, which are taken by the butcher in the corner. The alien objects are placed on the pavement and, after a couple of hours, are finished by being eaten by the strayed cats and dogs on the streets. While it dissolves through the nonhuman actors and networks of the city, it questions the very hard materiality of the city.
The work aims to illuminate the hidden agents of a little urban condition. It focuses on a nonhuman-centric relationship between three daily actors and creates a temporary, uncanny, mysterious scene.
In 2019, The New York Times estimated that in Istanbul alone, a megacity of 15 million people, there are thought to be 130,000 dogs and 125,000 cats roaming free. The strayed animals in Istanbul streets are fed and cared based on a network of care and cultural traditions of feeding animals by the city inhabitants. While Istanbul's urbanization and modernization process excluded and outlawed many actors, cats as nonhuman agents are the lucky ones who earn their crucial part in the city's daily life. As another agent, concrete bollards on the roads are designed as regulating and controlling devices. The half sphere-shaped ones are the most common bollards, mainly made of concrete with heavy bases. These overlooked objects are primarily associated with rules, permanency, and sterilization of urban daily life.
The other bollard' finds a forgotten space between two bollards and mimics the other urban elements around it. Even though the shape and the size of the bollard match with the other bollards, it is made of the leftover bones, which are taken by the butcher in the corner. The alien objects are placed on the pavement and, after a couple of hours, are finished by being eaten by the strayed cats and dogs on the streets. While it dissolves through the nonhuman actors and networks of the city, it questions the very hard materiality of the city.
