Chai on the Balance 2008

 

As I started to know Turkish culture, its hybrid aspects impressed me.  Sometimes it seemed to share the common cultural background of people from Far East, at other times it seemed closer to that of Europe.

Eventually, I slowly realised that there is no such easily defined notion as "east" or "west".  Perhaps there are specific highly compressed cross cultural and historical elements deeply underlying and generating a very important and original culture here.  I realised the border was an aspect, a result, not a simple linear definition.

In this installation "Chai on the Balance", I attempted to generate a spatial tension, like that of entering into a border territory.  The tea, Chai, is an indispensable cultural and communicative item here.  The form of the tea glass is so delicate and the deep ruby red tea is clearly beautiful.  And it is very fragile.  Although you were allowed to enter the installation, if this was done without care then it would easily collapse and be lost.  I employed this image as a metaphor for culture itself.

 

 

© 2004- Jun'ichiro ISHII