Immigration
Confronted with the tedious and tumultuous process to stay in the United States as a citizen of Turkey, Kadirbeyoğlu started Xeroxing the photograph from her American Visa. After making hundreds of b/w copies of her passport image on regular photocopy paper, the artist soaked each legal sized page in slip clay (liquid form of clay), dried and put them in a kiln. After firing, the clay pieces were peeled from the air pockets that formed when the artist’s paper image burnt out during the process. The result is a faint image of the artist’s Visa photograph left imprinted on fragile thin sheets of clay which crumble when touched. In the installation Immigration, these hundreds of pieces representing one individual are laid out on a stainless steel table to mimic a customs gateway. The continuous sound of passports being stamped is played in the background.
“Immigration”, Installation: Paper-clay photographs, stainless steel desk, sound. Stainless Steel table 152 cm X 121 cm X 61 cm – 5’ X 4’ X 2’. © Devrim Kadirbeyoğlu 2002.