Cansu Çakar: New Rarities
This autumn, Tate St Ives presents a brand-new work by Turkish artist Cansu Çakar. Entitled New Rarities, the miniaturist-inspired painting installation is the result of two residencies in St Ives, undertaken by Çakar in 2024, during which she became interested in representations of seashells, imagining them as both homes and graves. This led to an exploration of the shifting cultural value of natural resources – including Tyrian purple and Cornish tin – and the exploitation of landscapes and people through their extraction.
Laboriously derived from murex sea snails, Tyrian purple was named for its origins in Tyre, a centre of the ancient civilisation of Phoenicia that spread from modern-day Lebanon to trade and settle across the Mediterranean. This rare dye has been used to colour many precious artefacts through time. In parallel, tin from Cornwall and Devon was also a valuable resource across the ancient world. It has even been suggested that the Phoenicians came to Cornwall in search of it, though there is no archaeological evidence for this.
Çakar’s installation re-examines concepts of value, rarity and cultural heritage by speculatively tracing such ancient trade routes, real or imagined. Unfolding across a shell-like spiral of paper resembling an ancient map, it offers a story guided more by oral traditions than historical records.
Cansu’s practice blends traditional art forms, such as miniature painting, with contemporary art practices and topics. By doing so, she challenges the stereotypical classification of traditional expressions. In her drawings, paintings and workshops, she uses personal investigation and storytelling to delve into social, historical, and architectural topics, including expected roles for women and historical and contemporary interpretations of Near Eastern and Mediterranean cultures. Her work creates a symbolic dialogue that hints at seeming contradictions and continuities of traditions in today’s world.
Cansu Çakar was born in Istanbul in 1988, and now lives and works in İzmir, Turkey. The exhibition is curated by Anne Barlow, Director of Tate St Ives. Tate St Ives (UK) and the SAHA Association (Istanbul, Turkey) are delighted to work in partnership, creating residency and exhibition opportunities for Turkish artists that build awareness in the UK of contemporary art from Turkey.
The exhibition coincides with the first major UK museum exhibition of Romani visual artist, educator and activist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas. Open from 19 October 2024 – 5 January 2025, the show will feature a range of large-scale collages, including several new vibrant textiles, as well as three pieces recently acquired by Tate, the first works by a Romani artist to join the collection.
Notes to editors
New Rarities is commissioned by Tate St Ives, curated by Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St Ives. Supported by SAHA – Supporting Contemporary Art from Turkey.
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Listings information
Cansu Çakar: New Rarities
From 19 October 2024
Rotunda, Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St Ives TR26 1TG
Open daily 10.00–17:20; Winter opening hours (from 1 November) Tuesday to Sunday 10.00–16.20
For more information and to purchase tickets please visit tate.org.uk/stives call +44 (0)1736 796226, or email visiting.stives@tate.org.uk
Free for Members. Join at tate.org.uk/members
Follow @TateStIves
About Cansu Çakar:
Cansu Çakar (b. 1988, İstanbul, Turkey) is based in İzmir. Her projects and exhibitions include NATURE AND STATE, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (Baden-Baden, 2022); Fore-Edge Painting, MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma and Bibliotheca Hertziana Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History (Rome, 2021); The 6th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Urals Optical and Mechanical Plant (Yekaterinburg, 2021); 11th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, The Crack Begins Within, KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin, 2020); Miniature 2.0, Pera Museum (Istanbul, 2020); Replica of the Origin, Salt Beyoğlu (Istanbul, 2019); Linear Transcendency, The Lab, Darat al Funun (Amman, 2016); and 14th Istanbul Biennial, SALT WATER: A Theory of Thought Forms, 100°-FLO (Istanbul, 2015).
About Tate St Ives:
Opened in 1993 and expanded in 2017, Tate St Ives explores the area’s unique role in the story of modern art, provides a platform for cutting-edge contemporary artists from around the world, and runs a programme of events and projects developed for and with the town of St Ives. It also manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden and is the only Tate gallery to have a dedicated Artist Residency programme. Tate St Ives was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018, the UK’s most prestigious museum award. Find out more at tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives
Related Publications:
An illustrated glossary by Cansu Çakar will be available to purchase in the Shop.
Edited by Anne Barlow and Giles Jackson
Published by Tate Publishing
Related Events:
In Conversation with Cansu Çakar and Anne Barlow: Join artist Cansu Çakar in conversation with Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St Ives as she discusses her miniaturist-inspired painting on the opening day of her installation at Tate St Ives.
Saturday 19 October
11.00–12.00
Foyle Studio
For public enquiries, please visit: tate.org.uk/stives, call +44(0)1736 796226, or email: visiting.stives@tate.org.uk. Free for Members.
Join at tate.org.uk/members
Follow @TateStIves
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