Sermin Sherif:
Scarlet scarf, 2001

45-piece photo installation
colour, each 40 x 50 cm, installation ca. 200 x 450 cm
Sermin Sherif

 
Since the mid-1990s, Sermin Sherif has been a member of the artist group »Foreign Investment« that mainly produces and exhibits interactive video works. She lives in Istanbul and London and therefore has an insight into both – living on the edge of the Orient and living in the Occident.

In her photo work Scarlet Scarf, produced in 2001, she primarily addresses central themes as the body, existence and appearance. The 45 exhibited individual pictures were taken during a performance in Istanbul, where the artist wrapped and tied a scarf around her head and face in 70 different variations. At first glance the viewer seems to recognize on the images a wrapped up oriental or Islamic woman who hides her female identity – that means her true self – behind a veil. The artist’s facial expression additionally intensifies the viewer’s interpretation, her look is fixed and dejected, sad and resigned. But Sherif only plays around with this prejudice and thereby misleads the viewer. She questions the majority’s gaze on her concealed female identity covered by the veil, which is frequently associated with Islamic convictions. In addition to that, Sherif consciously chooses the scarlet colour of the scarf: as a signal colour for sexuality, but also as a symbol of a certain political affiliation.

No matter what kind of image was produced and recorded in pictures during the performance, it should not be looked at as a reflection and representation of an identity that was consciously chosen and determined by the artist. Because each form of the artist’s external appearance in this work equals an integral identity of women: either adorned or marked by the scarf, depending on the viewer’s interpretation of the appearance – based on his or her political and cultural background .

Text by: Jens Lutz