While drawing on sources from her personal history as well as collective memory, Feleksan Onar's works in glass deal with notions of identity, constructed narratives, historical relations and impacts of politics on society. In her recent project Perched, her story-telling in glass refl ects on the Syrian refugee situation. Triggered by witnessing the helpless refugees strolling around the streets of Istanbul, after being forced to leave their homelands, Perched has been exhibited in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin, the New Jersey Visual Arts Center and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The work was interpreted as a visceral expression of the fact that in spite of diff erences of religion, culture, and individual histories, what we all want most is to be in the place we call home, by the art critic Lisa Morrow. A reading of Louis de Berniéres' novel Birds Without Wings was an inspiration for Onar to create the series. Glass works, inspired by a book, create its own history over time and turn into a book again. This book marks the most comprehensive publication on Perched to date. The result here is a complementary structure addressing the aesthetic and political concepts inherent in Feleksan Onar's art. Contiguity and fragility are the core of this project and provides the form for this book. Exhibition: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany (03.09.2020 - 16.02.2021).
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