Probably the Last Post Before the Big Day

I'm very pleased with where we are based at the minute. Last year, I remember visiting the workers' mall, when we were taken to their camp. I felt immensely aware of the colour of my skin, and my social status when we were on their territory. Now, the aforementioned Grand Mall is our local shop, which Tom and I walk to, every now and then. On our walk there via the eternal construction on the pavement (I just want to clear my point here, there is never a pavement; all the walkways are just sand), we find plenty of time and material to discover new facts that make Dubai what it is.

What a pretty water tower

Not an artwork, but better than one

Just at the corner from us, so cute!

We walked to the beach the other day, I feel very proud to show that it is still possible to walk to places in Dubai

Jebel Ali Racecourse

The building that made me feel homesick

We already know that, moments of suspension will not wait for us forever. If we are not quick enough, opportunities here just disappear in a single moment. You should jump on the carousel, when it is already spinning. Tom was telling me about his experience at the bakery of Grand Mall. As a British citizen, of course he loves queuing up, and politely waiting for his turn to arrive and to be asked what he wants. Whereas this morning, he told me his funny story of gradually being pushed back and back at the bakery queue. You have to take what you want yourself apparently, rather than waiting for it to be given to you. It is the same in traffic. When we aim to cross the road, the cars are in hesitation, almost expecting us to jump on the road, and cross before them. But this doesn't make them to stop and give way; so there is a stage of limbo in everything.

Today's post is dedicated to Ben. I'm not used to coming across such generous, big-hearted people in my daily life. And here in Dubai, I almost melt into the ground with the favours of some old friends I met last year. Ben is lending us his fancy expensive SLR gadgets so that we can make a great film. He gave two inductions to Tom on his sophisticated cinematography skills. Who would do that!? I promise here, (this published post is the copyright of my promise) you Ben, will make my next film, where ever it will be.

Yesterday was the day of our rehearsal. Here I present Ghulam! He is very charismatic.

We also visited Tashkeel today to borrow the tripod for the film; everything is finally coming together. (Thanks Ali for taking us there) We have a very civilised but also beautifully archaic agreement with Tashkeel. Tom and I will give a welding workshop as an exchange in skills, towards borrowing the equipment. Wish that was the only way of trading in real life. 

Such a nice feeling it was; seeing Hadeyeh, Hala, Khalid, Salama, Jill and Latifah today. It was very comforting as it felt we are proceeding on a project after a small break, from where we left. Comforting to see some elements of Dubai remaining the same; and that evokes homeliness.

Can't wait to see Farah tonight; can't wait for that sweet homely feeling again.

My Valentines Gifts

CRATES CRATES CRATES!

Yesterday was the best day. We are obviously having the payback of our nine month misery of waiting. St. Valentine of the third century tapped on our shoulders, and sent his blessings as well as our crates to Satellite in a lovely Mitsubishi truck. I had a slight worry about the condition of the chest, after the customs inspection. Obviously, I wasn't expecting them to utilise drill drivers to unscrew the lid or anything; but it was still a thoughtful, tender bash with a crowbar, at the corner of the crate. Whereas Turkish customs prefer axing them, which is less lovely. Surprisingly, not even a single twig from the chest was broken, everything was in its place; the quad was not even inspected. Rami was with us at Satellite during our exciting wait, then we worked at the space together, listening to music, and setting up the quad, the tent, the chest. A brilliant day!

We have to sort out the flat tyre issue today

Rami, practicing the gears

Ready,

Go!

 Then Rami took us for a Valentine's night out, first to Dubai Mall, then to Downtown Dubai for a delicious dinner and the best ever chat. I was so fascinated by the crowd and the size of Dubai Mall. (Well, it is the biggest in the world) Despite being a shopping mall, it is purely a product of Visual Culture, more so then being a venue for expenditure. It's built to be looked at. It's the place you mostly buy with your eyes, consume with your eyes. To be honest, I quite like the democracy of the mall, where it is free to feed your eyes, and digest what you have seen in the following days, no matter what your status in the society is. The abundance of people you see at a Thursday night is part of the whole display. 

This fountain in Dubai Mall evoked the feeling of a bonfire, in the same way how you stare at it, without moving eyes.

                                                         The ice-skating rink in the centre of the mall

We also have been to the biggest book shop in the world. It is not a book shop, a but a book city. I should say, I was a bit overwhelmed; couldn't choose what to look at, but wandered around paralysed. I should practice for the next time about how to achieve a deduction in book-looking.

The biggest bookshop in the world, perhaps 1/20 of it visible in the image.

Once we lost our walking ability in the bookshop, it was time to chill out and have a nice meal. We headed to Downtown Dubai, which has an impressive view of a very tall jewellery, Burj Khalifa. The food was superb; it was excellent! The staff was so friendly. I didn't want anything to disturb that moment; I would have stopped time, if I could.

Cold mezze

Hot mezze

It was yesterday again I discovered the secret of the numerous editions of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum portrait paintings in Satellite. Always thought they were made by one person, and tried to imagine the context of the project. I'm so happy that I finally asked Rami about it, and now I know; it's a brilliant piece of work! The author of the project Lantian Xie, had 12 identical paintings of the 'publicly-known' photo of Sheikh Mohammed, each crafted by a different art worker in China. Then these paintings composed the installation 'I Think I Love You'. The most interesting part of the project is the bureaucratic legalities of the presentation of the work, which transformed the piece into a project where the paintings became equipments/mediators, rather than the final product.  The Chamber of Commerce allowed Traffic to perform the exhibition but did not permit the sales of the paintings to avoid the imagery of the Sheikh becoming a trade object. The successful skill of the paintings however was the ultimate key, in getting the permission to publicly show the work. In this way the institution of commerce became the jurying body who validates the exhibition. I find it immensely interesting, this process of iconising in a country whose Islamic traditions have never allowed to do so. I just love Dubai so much.

Lantian Xie's work

           We have a spoiler section at the end of this post; hope you enjoy what you see.

The City Where North Becomes South in an Eye Blink

From one of the venues for the film

Second day in Dubai, and things are getting sorted with the speed of light. That's how things happen here; such as the key location I chose for my film, turning into a cycle track with massive banners, accompanied by picnic tables in a finger snap! I have changed my opinion about how I see Dubai; it is no longer an appropriation land art project for me, it is rather a life-long performance work that ceaselessly deconstructs itself, and shines through its ashes like a phoenix! Traffic is participating to this interactive piece with literally having their corner chopped off for the 400 Days Project. Although I've got furious about the mutation of the film location for a short time, I then decided to take this as the classical challenge I always come across in my films: Such as the unforeseen three year-old Sigurast, or the unsteady Scottish weather; and this is the unsteady and unforeseen Dubai landscape.

This is what the abandoned tv tower have become of: Good for the space, good for others; but very bad for my self satisfaction and a stumble for my obsessive filming plans. Fortunately, film is the art of cheating.

Traffic?

Yes

The Traffic team is as fantastic as ever; I am tired of thanking, but they are never tired of running around for us, in amongst thousand other projects! Moreover, we have been given the fanciest place to stay. The photos below are not taken from a Hollywood film, it is indeed our warehouse bedroom; it is the legendary Satellite! I have always been very intrigued about the Al Quoz industrial area, and now staying at the belly button of it. It never sleeps, so we take the sounds of the factory machines and ground drills as our nursery rhymes.

Bedroom

I have been asked to participate to a Pecha Kucha night in Dubai, at a sweet, partially outdoor cafe/library/workshop/everything venue in Safa Park. The preparation took time, so I couldn't write any post here yesterday. I would like to thank Tom for enabling me to write this blog tonight, as he is helping me out with the images for the presentation. THANKS TOM!

When we don't travel around to find the remaining materials needed, or to find out what has changed at the filming locations, we remain at Traffic and collect/carry hundreds of stones of various sizes under the sun. This act might sound futile as ever, but it is no different than any other labourious project I take on, which, by a stretch of the imagination, might be likened to the life of a construction worker. This somehow reminded me of the days I used to carry buckets of water to my Glasgow tower in Bastakiya. 

Yesterday we also met Aman, the other residency artist whose project I am slightly jealous of. (It's a nice type of jealousy) He uttered a sentence: "Dubai is constructing its future, present and past all at the same time." What a simple and smart statement! Just so beautiful...

The news bomb of yesterday is our perfect find of a protagonist: Ghulam, I feel, will be an excellent match for the role. I was desperately grumbling to Rami about our lack of an actor, because we needed to confirm someone for all the filming permits that had to be arranged. Then Rami said "Come with me" in an extremely determined manner. Tom and I followed him. He turned right, and right again. We saw four Pakistani men eating on the pavement. Rami asked them whether any one of them would be interested in acting in a film. And Ghulam took the lead and answered for all the rest's behalf. It wasn't the looks, wasn't the charisma that drove me to him as the director, but his confidence in communicating with us and his outgoing character took the role from my hands, and placed it to his. All of these happened in exactly four minutes! I'm very happy with our decision. I am hoping we can practice the role a bit tomorrow, as Ghulam always hangs out around Traffic, we are so lucky!

We also have a cat actress, Tara. She is so giant and beautiful; apparently as easygoing and calm! Basically she is a BFG! Can't wait to meet Tara, as we should probably introduce ourselves and the uncomfortable bird-cage prior to filming. Whoever is reading this text, could you please touch wood for me? Everything is going so well until now, I would really appreciate a communal touch-wood ritual to keep things going on the track. As a Turkish person, I'm proud of living with my superstitions.

Tara on the left

Coordinates of Time

There has always been an act of transformation either in my sculptures or my films, since I first started appreciating the work I make. Recalling my undergraduate degree on painting and drawing, I initially endeavoured to accomplish this process on canvas; but it didn’t work really.

Following my transfer to the world of material and making as well as storytelling with moving image, I have discovered that I can literally trigger a replacement in the state and condition of matter and situations. Unreliable though indispensible kinetics, ceaseless water, and ephemeral organic constituents of my sculptures have since been the real performers of my symbiotic art life.

On the other hand, my films had a slightly different path, despite the use of all above mentioned within those videos. With Being an Ear Guest to a Gossip, transformation took the form of alchemical transmutation; and with 69 metaphysics became the main methodology in rediscovering the substance of wind, which is harvested from an egg, after complicated cycle of actions. 

C G Jung, Psychology and Alchemy

  

Maintaining a metaphysical pattern, Beyond is Before -as the name implies- plays with time structures, shuffling the orthodox chronology of the linear perception of time. At this very moment, I would like to mention the Yupno people of Papua New Guinea; who bear a wonderful spatial understanding of time, as opposed to our boring western way of accepting time as a straight line running through our body: No doubt we would indicate past as behind, and future extending in front of us. According to Anil Ananthaswamy’s beautiful article in New Scientist, time for Yupno people flows uphill and is not even linear! Rafael Nunez of the University of California, and his team discovered that the tribespeople at this particular part of the world use gestures designating past as downhill, in the direction of the mouth of the local river; and the future, towards the river’s source, which lies uphill from Gua, the village of Yupno people. This topographic conception of time is believed to be history related; rooting from how ancestors of Yupno arrived to the land by sea and climbed up the high mountain to settle; thus lowlands would represent past, and time flows uphill. In an indoor situation, Nunez realised that the Yupno always point towards the doorway when talking about the past, and away from the door to indicate the future no matter what the orientation of the house is! This situation proves that time doesn’t have to process in a linear platform, flowing from past to future; which is predominantly a western illusion.

New Scientist, 2 June 2012

‘Beyond is Before’ is a work in progress, experimenting with the idea of ‘regression’, going backwards in time every single moment we think we are entering the future. In this entropic, post-apocalyptic world, matter transforms into its raw material once placed in a chest acting as a one-way time machine. In this alternative world, religion evolved into a futuristic form of folk-religion where Islamic beliefs and worshipping hybridised with the technological and industrial remnants of 21^st century. No water, nor oil in this future, so alternatives are proposed.

I think this is enough giving away, before leaving snowy Glasgow for the magical deserts of Dubai.  90 minutes left to leave Glasgow for our flight…

Very exciting!!!!!

Penultimate Day

It will be a summarising start for this blog I suppose, as the work for this film has been in progress for almost seven months now. As some people might know, life paused for Tom and I for nine months -special thanks to UKBA- until a bust was organised to Sheffield office of the Border Agency and revealed a box full of 16,000 applications, hidden at a corner. Just one day after Tom gave a radio interview to BBC, our passports and my marriage visa arrived at the door. Now time has arrived and eventually we are flying to Dubai tomorrow.

Giant Door Passports

Passport Shrine

I don't know what I would do without the supports of Tom Harrup and Rami Farook in their patience and their endless belief in the project. These are the people who are helping my dream come true. I would also like to thank everyone who generously offered their efforts for organising the shipping of the crates for the props that had to be made in Glasgow by Tom and I, filming permits and other arrangements.