About sera
Sera Boeno is a sculptor and installation artist from Istanbul, Turkey. Her praxis is research based and influenced by the sociopolitics of her motherland, which she extrapolates to her current setting. Narratives of and around women in historically silenced topics –politics, sex, religion, trauma– are central to her work; she explores these topics via para-fiction, “mockuments”, “fauxrcehology”, archival and museological language. Boeno holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College with degrees in… more
Grandmother Series (: Anneanne Serisi)
My family, and the practices of women in my family, are things that I hold very dear to my heart; these small bits of ephemeral information are building blocks of larger, enduring concepts that give way to monumental work.
Grandmother Series (Anneanne Serisi) is an intimate body of work that records my Grandmother, Neriman Aydin’s stories, dreams, obsessions, loves and traumas in objects.
Grandmother Series is comprised of small scale, simple and domestic materials and working methods, as well as found or acquired objects and non-objects (practices, Oral histories, prayers.) I sculpt these physical and abstract artifacts into my work as research “data”, the meaning of which I have expanded to include objects that have gained specific significance through experience. When worn to a funeral, a piece of black cloth is elevated to a signifier of time; stones and fruit pits my grandmother brings back from a pilgrimage to Mecca into that of faith; pricked into drywall, sewing needles become documentations of waiting. I build these objects into the series to widen in space and solidify in time the active states of such object’s fleeting stories.
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Dates from Mecca (: Mekke’den Hurma)2017. Lost-wax cast bronze. 25” x .25 x 1” "Okumak-Üflemek" is a Turkish cultural practice wherein a person says a protective prayer and transfers it, through breath, onto an edible object. Prayer is dormant until consumption. My grandmother brought dates back from her pilgrimage to Mecca. They were blessed by a very important Imam there. I was to consume the dates and keep the pits for protection. Instead of consuming them with my mouth, I used fire.
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Prayer (:Dua)2017. Wood, cooking twine, candies prayed on by my Grandmother. 12” x 7” x 1.5”. These mint candies are my grandmother's choice of object to pray on. She distributes them to her grandchildren for protection. She used to pray on them one by one. Eventually she started blessing them by the pack. The last batch she sent me was a 7 lb eco-pack all blessed in one go.
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Prayer II (Neriman’s Blanket) (: Dua II (Neriman’ın Yorganı))Wood, cooking twine, cement, candies prayed on by my Grandmother. 78” x 26” x 3”.
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Prayer III (Chandelier) (: Dua III (Avize) )2017.Wood, cooking twine, candies prayed on by my Grandmother. 6’ x 2’ x 2’.
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Prayer III (Chandelier) (: Dua III (Avize) )2017. Wood, cooking twine, candies prayed on by my Grandmother. 6’ x 2’ x 2’. Detail.
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Proposal for a Monument for Neriman (Penelope)2017. Sewing Needles, thread. 2” x .25 x 1.5”. My grandfather was in the Turkish Navy. Military missions took him to the United States many times. He returned from his odysseys with excitement, stories of patriotism and adventure. It is rumored in the family that he took an American lover. My grandmother never made it to the U.S. She was a house-wife. She stayed in Golcuk, a small town in North-West Turkey and took care of the house and her three daughters. She made all of their clothes by hand.
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Board Game (: Çocuk Oyunu)2017. Concrete, interactive. Variable ( 4”x1.5”x1.5” blocks)
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Laying Stones2017. Wood, found cloth, pebbles, thread. 11" x 19" x 1.5"
Dream Graphics
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Dream Journal #6: A Whale Appears as I Kayak Between the Prince IslandsA digital page from my visual dream journal.
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Dream Graphic #3: Father Complex Shoot Off at My Ancient Lava Apartment House-Warming PartyA digital page from my visual dream journal.
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Dream Graphic #4: Everyone I Love Decides to Join an Elite Death-by-Shark-Attack Suicide CultA digital page from my visual dream journal.
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Dream Graphic #1: Sinking of the Galatasaray IsletA digital page from my visual dream journal.
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Dream Graphic #2: Cannibalism-Positive Conversations with Practicing Flatmates Henry and AndrewA digital page from my visual dream journal.
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Dream Journal #5: Kubrick (played by David Tennant) Live Mixes the Sequel to A Clockwork Orange Using Audience InputA digital page from my visual dream journal.
Concrete Landscapes
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Concrete Landscape I (Mountains)2017. Wood, concrete. 18” x 18” x 1.5”
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Concrete Landscape II2017. Wood, concrete. 5” x 6” x 1.5”
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Concrete Landscape III (Seascape)2017. Wood, concrete. 28” x 26” x 1.5”
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Concrete Landscape IV (Water Lilies)2017. Wood, concrete. 26” x 24” x 1.5”
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Concrete Landscape V (Sunset)2017. Wood, concrete. 8” x 5” x 1.5”
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Concrete Landscape VII (Wave)2018. Wood, concrete. 9.5” x 17.5"x 1.5"
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Concrete Landscape VIII (Farm by the Hill)2018. Wood, concrete. 12.5" x 5.5” x 1.5”
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Concrete Landscape IX (Spring)2018. Wood, concrete. 8" x 5.5” x 1.5”
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Concrete Landscape X (Wave 2)2018. Wood, concrete.5.5” x 8" x 1.5”
Monument I (Writing Stones) - From the Kelimeler Kıyafetsiz (:Words Naked / Are Not Enough) Series
Kelimeler Kıyafetsiz (:Words Naked/Are Not Enough) is a research project on representations of women in political speech from Turkey wherein quotes that refer to women are extracted from the public speeches of current Turkish politicians and re-presented in archeological forms that have historically celebrated male glory.
In 2014, the collection of quotes were formed into 10 writing stones, Monument I, visually drawing from Orkhon Inscriptions: bilingually inscribed Turkic artifacts erected to glorify 8th Century Göktürk Princes.
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Kelimeler Kıyafetsiz (:Words Naked/Are Not Enough) - Monument I (Writing Stones)2015. Cement, charcoal, pigment. 74"x168"x74". Installation shot. Barrows Rotunda, Hopkins Center for the Arts. Hanover, NH.
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Kelimeler Kıyafetsiz (:Words Naked/Are Not Enough) - Monument I (Writing Stones)2015. Prints on Concrete, Charcoal. 74"x168"x74". Installation detail. Barrows Rotunda, Hopkins Center for the Arts. Hanover, NH.
Icons
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Icon IImage still from live video performance at 2017 Philadelphia Fashion Week
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Icon IIIImage still from live video performance at 2017 Philadelphia Fashion Week
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Icon IVImage still from live video performance at 2017 Philadelphia Fashion Week
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Icon IIImage still from live video performance at 2017 Philadelphia Fashion Week
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Icon VImage still from live video performance at 2017 Philadelphia Fashion Week
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Icon VIImage still from live video performance at 2017 Philadelphia Fashion Week
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Icon VIIImage still from live video performance at 2017 Philadelphia Fashion Week
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Icon VIIIImage still from live video performance at 2017 Philadelphia Fashion Week