Face Off is part of the collection Chasing the Hidden, released exclusively on Sedition by İrem Çoban.
This collection seeks to articulate feelings that are internalized in daily life; the powerful responses to everyday situations which also reflect deeper and wider feelings and insights. Created using a combination of digital drawing, video, photography and motion graphics, the collection aims to convey the inherent multidimensional character of the human and to reveal the secrets stored in the hidden attics of the mind.
The collection attempts to visualize and materialize internal energies through abstract forms. In these works focusing on gender and identity issues, the forms explore the complexities of representation in feminist art. In this context, the problems developing along sue to the climate crisis unfold along with significant increases in violence against women in quarantine due to the pandemic; these coexisting forces influenced the way these works are presented.
"In a society ruled by the patriarchal social order, social screams of the suppressed, namely women and different gender identities, ought to be amplified as a means of purification as well as an expression of the inner world. It is important to make the known but ignored visible.
As David Lynch has stated, there is a wonderful ocean of happiness and consciousness that the individual can reach by diving into themselves. This ocean is an incredibly important resource" - İrem Çoban.
In the era we live in, technology has almost become an extension of our bodies, another limb. Technology enables us to acquire virtual identities as explored through Jung's Persona. In our virtual tribes, where we are equipped with virtual Personas, we need to see each other, think, feel and hear each other, and remain aware of our own evolving sense of self.
In this 2020 video work, the mask represents virtual personas and acts as a warning, drawing attention to the hands we use to convey our expressions and messages. The soundtrack seeks to expand and revive our digital identities by blending technological and mechanical dimensions with human voices.
