Reflection of Body Identity Gender Policies on Art Practices in Turkey Between 1980-90 ‘Füsun Onur, Nur Koçak’

Abstract

From the 1980s to the present, the studies on feminist initiatives on behalf of gender equality in Turkey have sometimes gained momentum and sometimes hesitated due to political reservations. The reason why it has not been fully formed is due to the misinterpretation of the concept of equality, which leads to different thoughts and debates, or the fact that such an interpretation facilitates the work of patriarchal ideas. For example, conservative parts define this as women's desire to be the same as men. However, gender equality is not the effort of women to be the same as men, but it desire to have the same equal conditions with all their differences. There is no need to talk about the equality of things that are not different. Therefore, feminists have carried out a number of studies towards the end of hierarchical relations within equal opportunity by eliminating unjust power differences arising from gender identities. In this study, the studies of our Turkish female artists between 1980-1990, by doing studies on women and identity problems in many different channels, in order to women to become a subject rather than an object in the history of art, are discussed. Whether or not the female artists of the period adopted the concept of feminism, they reflected it in their own art practices, especially; with forms of expression such as conceptual art, pop art, space, installation and video. Most of the works have social content and have the quality of giving a message to society. In this study, the educational life and works of Füsun Onur and Nur Koçak, who put forward the concepts of body, identity and gender in the most striking expressions, were examined, and how they presented the same subjects in different styles was scrutinized.