Güler Ates

Born in 1977 in Eastern Turkey, Güler Ates lives and works in the UK.  She graduated in 2008 from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Fine Art. Currently, she is Digital Print Tutor at the Royal Academy Schools. Her work can be found in the print collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Government Art Collection (UK), Oude Kerk, Huis Marseille, Museum Van Loon in Amsterdam, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) in Rio de Janeiro and the Museum of Oriental Art in Turin.

I work with Video, Photography, Printmaking and Performance. At the heart of my work lies an  exploration into the experience of cultural displacement. Manifestations of my work are realized  through performance and site-responsive activities that merge Eastern and Western sensibilities. My  work comments on the Western notion of Orientalism and the effects of the cross-pollination of  cultures on female identity and architecture. In my work I question the relationship between the veil  and the West, by setting the female veiled figure within a lush or historic European interior. 

The architectural sites that I work in are of a particular era with specific links to colonialism, now  post-colonialism, and the ‘East’. I find that they are interesting to work in, in their own right. I  conduct research into the history of these sites, which inform me about the source of the fabric to be  used and that leads me to the choice of colours that becomes a costume or veil for my performing  model to wear. As part of the performance, the subject tells a story drawn from the history of the site,  exploring my feelings of cultural duality. 

I have previously implemented projects at the following architectural settings: the Victoria & Albert  Museum, London; Cité Internationale Des Arts, Paris; Leighton House Museum, London; Great  Fosters (the former royal hunting lodge of King Henry VIII), Egham; Royal Academy of Arts,  London; City Palace, Udaipur, India; Huys te Warmond, The Netherland; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Instagram: @guler.ates1