This twenty two screen television installation called 'The Stream' (2022) is the first new work shown by Ataman since 'The Portrait of Sakip Sabanci' (exhibited at the Venice Biennale in...
This twenty two screen television installation called 'The Stream' (2022) is the first new work shown by Ataman since 'The Portrait of Sakip Sabanci' (exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2015 and The Royal Academy, London in 2016).
Eight films play across the twenty televisions that are suspended on a worn wooden structure. They point at various angles, forming a rough pyramid. Across the eight different films the viewer sees a hand-held hoe digging an irrigation stream. Each of the films is a close-up. The viewer can occasionally see the hand of the digger on the hoe and hear the sound of their breathing but the main sound is the hoe scraping against the hard ground. The televisions are positioned so that the stream that is being dug runs upwards from the ground to the ceiling of the gallery.
Ataman says of 'The Stream': " To me it is about reconstructing, rethinking and starting from scratch. I feel it is also about soil and water meeting and creating life, and the struggle that involves such a task. When I was making it though, I was only digging the soil and let the dry soil meet with water so I could turn the barren land into a green garden for myself. It was an attempt to heal myself."