By physically placing the life-size wax-covered bicycle in front of the painting and thus keeping it on a separate plane from the child in the painting, the artist makes it impossible for the child to access the item. Although different interpretations are possible, the fact that the bicycle is covered in wax calls to mind birthdays and signals that the bicycle is an object desired by the child in the painting. The fact that the installed item is a bicycle takes the discussion beyond basic needs and steers it towards the multidimensionality of poverty. Using pale and dark colors and thick brushstrokes to depict the mood of the child, Kundukan presents the state of deprivation to the viewers with such plainness and simplicity that cannot be overlooked.  

#povertycanend #childpoverty #crisisresilience #psychologicaleffectsofpoverty #povertyisahumanrightsviolation #enoughforeveryone #dimensionsofpoverty #deeppoverty

About the Artist:

Kundukan’s  “extraordinary” displays in her artworks are a blend of images from her own past such as traditions and customs that form our memory, religious oppression, authority and violence, patriarchy, and traces of social conditioning, all of which she interprets and elaborately brings together. With the childhood years being one of her main sources of inspiration, the artist, in a sense, includes the viewer into her own “privacy”.  Drawing from individual memory, the artist takes a closer look into the normalized institution of the family. Questioning the untouchable, unquestionable, and even tabooed, sick aspects of this institution that shapes our social memory, she explores the marginalization of women (and girls), sexual abuse, and gender discrimination in her works.