“THE SPHINX WILL DEVOUR YOU!”, KARŞI SANAT GALERİSİ, İSTANBUL
SFENKS SENİ YİYİP YUTACAK THE SPHINX WILL DEVOUR YOU
Onbeş Kadın Sanatçı’dan resim, fotograf, dijital baskı, video ve yerleştirmeler Fifteen Women Artists in painting, photography, digital print, video, installations 15 Mart/March-7 Nisan/April 2004 Karşı Sanat Galerisi (Elhamra Pasajı)
Yeşim Agaoglu / Özgül Arslan / Elif Çelebi / Alla Georgieva (Sofia) Gül Ilgaz / Cemile Kaptan / Amel Kennawy (Cairo)/ Nadezda Oleg Lyahova (Sofia)/ Fakhriyya Mammadova (Baku)/ Neriman Polat / Tina La Porta (New York) / Ani Setyan / Sermin Sherif /Gonca Sezer Kumi Yamashita (Tokio)
küratör/curator: Beral Madra koordinasyon ve halkla ilişkiler/coordination and PR: Nilüfer Sülüner
A sphinx is half woman-half lion with breasts and wings. When we look up the definition of sphinx, it means “to strangle, guard; gatekeeper or protect”. Paradoxal terms unified in one image! The sphinx is a grecian myth and since ages, is a major part of masonry which is a male secret society. According to the greeks, the sphinx was a guardian of the city of Thebes. She sat on a cliff infront of the gates leading to the city. Anyone that wanted to enter Thebes had to first confront the sphinx. The sphinx would ask one simple riddle and if the person didn’t know the answer, she would devour him, tearing him to pieces. The king, Creon, was troubled that many people were unable to enter his city. He consulted Oedipus and offered his crown and his daughter if he could kill the sphinx. So he confronted the sphinx who asked him the riddle, “What has one voice, and goes on four feet on two feet and on three, but the more feet it goes on the weaker it be?” Oedipus responded, “Man — who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age.” After answering the riddle correctly, the sphinx committed suicide, jumping off the cliff and Oedipus was claimed king of Thebes. Symbolically, the body signifies the animal nature, which exists in women in the form of the lion, which is the royalty, and power of the divine spirit that has been myth logically attributed to women as mother goddess. The riddle represents the knowledge and intelligence inherent in women. Metaphorically speaking, the sphinx coveys its knowledge and intelligence to men by destroying its lower animal nature and bestows him the refinement of the thought process that leads to the spiritual evolution of man. By solving the riddle, Oedipus (the man) became master problem-solver.
