Bengü Karaduman

Born in 1974 in Hildesheim, Germany, Bengü Karaduman was trained in Stage and Costume Design at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and in New Artistic Media at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar. Inspired by conscious and subconscious experiences, she tries to interpret and give meaning to the economic, social, political systems and mechanisms. Among her primary themes, she works with are the construction of reality and the individual situated at the center of this construction. As production methods, she employs observation, accumulation, taking apart, deciphering, and reassembly. Karaduman’s installations are based on the media of video, two and three-dimensional animation, performance, drawing, and sound. 

Karaduman's artist video can be accessed from the link below. 

Bengü Karaduman | 3rd Term Artist Videos

The Sound of Shadow

The Sound of Shadow and Life Signs are two different works that emerge from the same thought and emotion processes and are based on this subjective process. The Sound of Shadow is an instrument – a manifestation of the notes of scribbling that emerges during the course of a therapy, which turns into a sculpture. The pieces, all of which have a distinctive sound, are made of brass and consist of fourteen different forms. The sound composition that emerges from the experience of the tones of this sculpture is a state of being on a path that transforms from pattern to form, from form to sound.

If the expectation of the established order in the outside world is that we present 'integrated' façades that fit into a certain 'standard', the idea that needs to be broken by action is that our résumé (our reconstructed economic, social and political starting point) is something to be ashamed of, hidden and suppressed. Experiences are our own, and dealing with them is a path we can work on and get on.

At the starting point of The Sound of Shadow, I began an excavation of my own personal history, intent on redefining my existence in the world.

I poured out the materials (photos, VHS tapes, diaries, dreambooks, bureaucratic papers, old hard drives, unopened parcels from various moves, mementos) from my birth until now and constructed a close relationship with them that spanned several months.

During my introspective course, I immersed myself in the associative flow of thoughts, feelings, affections, and sharpened senses that my being has created up to now. Beyond just letting go of this flow, I deliberately triggered memories and traumas to intensify this experience, turning it into a self-conscious action.

Allowing the process to create itself was an important method. During the interpretation of the excavation, which started with concrete elements on an abstract plane, the psychoanalysis that I launched to process the elements that I could reach accompanied this time period. As the sessions progress, the scribbles and drawings on the papers in front of me form the basis of the Sound of Shadow work. The resulting abstract forms are turned into a bell sculpture made of brass metal. I experiment with the resulting instrument for a performance and invite people to this interaction.

Life Signs

The second work that emerged at the end of my introspective journey was the performance called Life Signs.

SAHA Studio was the next stop of my personal tangible and intangible findings, which were carried from time to time, from place to place. The relationship of my own subjective material with its surroundings and sharing the situation I was going through were important points. In the studio area, I developed a performance where I crossed the ropes attached to an installed assembly. Life Signs resulted as an expression of going through one phase and exiting into another, including the place and time I was in as I passed through the process.

http://www.bengue.net/