From Ancient to Now
“Yücelen’s figurative bronze sculptures are a philosophical journey through the essential elements of life. Each sculpture is a visual commentary that questions our urge to overthrow our present norms, values, and aesthetics, instead of using them to inform our progress. By mashing past and future together, Yücelen dares us to cherish the human intimacy and face to face collaboration that we used to take for granted and to discover new pathways to them.
Among the works on paper featured in Yücelen’s exhibition, From Ancient to Now, are three 30” X 22” monotypes on Women’s Rights in Islamic countries. From her 2017 series “Overwritten Scripts” each print emphasizes the inequality that exists based on socio-cultural norms rather than Islamic principles, which regard men and women equal in humanity. In addition, the exhibition includes works on paper from her “Trousseau” series which displays a belongings a woman takes with her to her husband’s house. During the summer of 2018, Yücelen created one small monoprint every morning. The result is her series, “To Moon”. From Ancient to Now includes works from this series that reference ancient scripts and poetry.
Belgin Yücelen: From Ancient to Now also includes selected metal sculptural dresses and shoes from her series, “Clothes from the Past”. Inspired by her cultural history, Yücelen created garments as a reference to the clothing patterns of Europe and Anatolia during the era of the Ottoman Empire. Her work, “Persian Dress with Crescents”, was inspired by a woman’s 18th-century robe because of the deep influences of Persian language, epic poems, and miniature paintings on the Ottoman culture. Constructed from brass and red dupioni silk, Yücelen used a technique she adopted form dival embroidery of thread over cardboard to create the dresses crescents. The crescent motif appears in Turkish textiles dating as far back as the 14th century.” Nicole Capozzi, Boxheart Gallery
