Afra Öztürk - Merve Güçlü

Dress Code

The piece defines the set of clothing rules imposed at universities during the era as “dress code”, a phrase that otherwise refers to clothing norms one happily and willingly conforms to in daily life, highlighting the contrast between the two practices. An almost identical-looking version of a classical marble statue, unearthed after painstaking effort, was remade in fiber and polyester with 3D printers, with a material hollow rather than full like a marble statue. The meaning attributed to this headless statue of a woman was called into question on another level with these contrasting materials.

Additionally, according to the artist, this dual perspective shows how the modern dress code imposed on women in universities for a long period of time bears a certain level of primitiveness belonging to the antiquity. The absent head is the only part where the body of the young woman is assumed to be the same with the rest of women. Indeed, “Dresscode” has come up with a definition for the head, which represents not its physical properties, but also the thoughts within it. Therefore, the easiest and surest way to abide by this rule would be to get rid of the head completely.