'Building Poems' by Ceylan Öztrük at 1.1, Basel

In Building Poems, Ceylan Öztrük presents a new body of work which finds a flexible physical form of a multitude of layers and confrontations. The work is a continuation as well as shift away from a previous project, which came to existence through various iterations, in which Öztrük re-produced prehistoric Venus figurines as dildos. For this body of work, she now presents non- erected forms, which are non-penetrable pleasure sculptures. The non-erected, soft forms mirror the interior of the exhibition space, several of them are imprints of details in the walls. All of these sculptures are usable, made of medical silicone and are activated in the hand of the user. Through the use of pole railings, Öztrük extends the theme of hand gestures proposed through architectural tools: holding, grasping, touching. In many ways, the hand with its figurative and sensory significance as a body limb becomes a gateway to past and future, in the moment of touch between the hand and the artefact whose concept has travelled through time and space. Öztrük applies this status to the prehistoric Venus figurine present in Building Poems, but never visible as a whole. She assigns the Venus as a common point between different temporalities and re-narrates her position from a much broader approach to grasping time, a concept of time that is rooted in Quantum Theory. The hand assumes the role of the erected body part and moves away from heteronormative approaches to self-pleasure. The bending of the solid concepts such as time and elements, which is to say the dissolution of the linear aspect of time and interference with the solid structure of the exhibition space, allow the pleasure sculptures to open more probabilities in the non-heteronormative, as they are withstanding deterministic vindications. They invite to be played with, and in such ask the viewer to re-evaluate their relationship with the space as it becomes an active counterpart. The structures used to display these objects, Öztrük uses pole railings which she previously used as sex poles in her domestic space, allowing to pull and hold on to, merging the hard, potent attitude of the space with (self-) pleasure and flexibility. The manifest an occupation of the space, which blurs the lines between exhibition, public space and domestic, private sphere. The theme of non-linearity and bending of assumed solids reflects not only in the pleasure sculptures themselves, but also in the multitude of layers and references, thought processes, and new approach that Öztrük takes in her artistic practice. It demands an equally non-linear and multilayered confrontation of which this text can only be a fraction of.