Sine İçli

Mythological tales carry within themselves multiple stories in one. They grow their own wings, legs, arms and strands of hair that extend in multiple directions, as they are passed on, told and listened to, each time in a new context, focusing on different details, and connecting with a different human being. In this debut solo exhibition, Sine Içli delves into a mythological tale about descending into the underworld, a supernatural dimension perceived as subterranean and in many ways inferior. What this journey unveils instead are explorations of a condition of the feminine that seems timeless.

In this Sumerian myth of descent and return, Inanna, Goddess of Heaven and Earth, sets herself on a journey to visit her sister Ereshkigal in the depths of a world where, in order to cross a sequence of gates, the Goddess is gradually stripped of her powers and defences, symbolically rendered naked. What appears to be death awaiting at the other end, perpetrated by her own sister, turns out reversed by negotiations where wisdom, empathy and nourishment play a part, and the Goddess is brought back to life. As is said of most ancient storytelling, characters can be perceived as facets of a whole, and so, this story, a metaphor for a single individual’s psyche – a woman’s. The act of descent, gradually undressing in a rite of passage, speaks to an initiation into – or reconciliation with – the intimate nature of the feminine, which recognises and embraces even the darkest parts that compose a balanced self, where space is held for the mysteries of the mind and of the world, and from them flourishes intuition, sensitivity, and strength.

In this show, works on clay in varied forms and a series of drawings on paper take on the meaning of imaginary maps: paths continue from one fragment to another as connections and routes are left for the imagination to pursue. There is room for a bit of fun just as much as there is for uninvited thoughts; for shadow and light, for delving under as much as for flying over. In an invitation to play, some pieces of this exhibition ought to be assembled in one’s mind – and there only. There, precisely where the greatest challenges of pursuit and recognition await us all.

Exhibition text by Cecília Vilela poem by Sine İçli