ÇATALHÖYÜK 2004 ARCHIVE REPORT

OUTREACH PROJECTS

Installation Art at Çatalhöyük

Adrienne Momi

Abstract

The figural finds at Çatalhöyük, and the controversy surrounding their interpretation sparked my initial interest in the site. Also,the many dimensions, many layers of information at Çatalhöyük, both actual and metaphoric intrigued me from the beginning-and continue to do so.   Without a doubt there is rich mythic (in the sense of the profound storytelling about the human experience in this place) material here to be gathered and analyzed. I create temporary installations on archaeological sites in order to investigate an imaginal space that may offer us an archetypal or psychological window into the culture of the original inhabitants. During this process, we necessarily encounter our own psyches, and perhaps the psyches of the contemporary inhabitants of the area. Admittedly, it is impossible to divest one's thinking of personal cultural experience. However, as a scholar and trained artist, I can make a conscious effort to minimize that effect on my work by focusing on the archetypal signals received from the site, imagining the people, the belongings, and the homes that lie beneath the soil under my feet.

Özet

Bize, yerleşim yeri sakinlerinin kültürleri ile ilgili, psikolojik ve mimari bir pencere açabilecek bir görsel alanı araştırmak üzere, arkeolojik alanlarda geçici bir yüklem yarattım. Bu süreçte, kendi ruhumuzu ve aklımızı hesaba katmalı, hatta belki bölgenin şu andaki sakinlerinin de aynı şekilde ruhunu ve aklını göz önünde bulundurmalıyız. Şunu itiraf etmeliyim ki birinin kendi kişisel kültürel deneyimini yok saymak imkansızdır. Bununla beraber, bir akademisyen ve eğitimli bir ressam olarak, ortaya çıkarılan mimari işaretlere yönelik düşünerek, insanları, sahip olduklarını ve ayaklarımın altında yatan evlerini hayal ederek bu faktörü en aza indirmeye yönelik bilinçli bir çaba harcayacağımı düşünüyorum.

Introduction

The first layers of meaning were "artistically excavated" in 2001 through the installation, "Turning in Time." Those spirals revealed certain symbolic/mythic significance of the walls of the houses, as well as highlighting the mythic environment of the current research activities. My first research papers discussed the mythic implications of human constructed walls, and the impact that such construction may have had upon the people who lived with them.

The scholarly paper that I presented at the 2002 meeting of the West Coast American Academy of Religion is a brief summary of my mythic interpretation of this experience. A discussion of my work at Çatalhöyük is also included in a section of the paper I presented in Aarhus, Denmark to the International Society of Arts and Literature in 2002, where I chaired a session entitled "Visual Art and Science." That paper focused on installation art as a method of knowledge gathering

Now, my interest is shifting to the painted images upon those walls. The geometric designs/symbols on the walls were the "language" of metaphor for "Turning." Process strongly informs my work; and as I squatted daily over the spiral, drawing and redrawing the symbols I chose, I began to see past my original impression of them. Animal and landscape images began to emerge. Sometimes the lozenges appeared to be islands and the zigzags appeared to be rivers or moving water. Triangles began to represent bull's horns. The designs within the grid (that Mellaart calls a honeycomb or a net) echoed the spots drawn on the famous leopard relief, and the grid itself morphed into windows through which I could "see" into the work, almost into the soil below the paper.

No doubt the experience I just described sounds strange to the disciplined scientific psyche, but this is just the sort of experience I expect and hope to achieve during the art-making process. Many artists have documented altered states while engaged in the creative act; I am merely describing the one associated with this particular installation.

2004 Work

So there I was with a yet unfinished understanding of the meaning of the walls and a vivid impression of the importance of the animal imagery painted upon them. Obviously, if I were to deepen the work I have started, I need to explore those elements. My first thought was to recreate an intensely layered and painted wall. The piece would be at least 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide, situated somewhere on the mound so as not to interfere with any of the excavation areas. I realized, however, that it was not the walls that I was interested in so much as the images of the large animals painted upon the walls.

Figure 127: Metal skeleton of “bull” installation piece

 

Future Plans

Next summer, this metal skeleton will be transported to an appropriate location on the mound and we will flesh its flattened body out with mud brick material. A skin of plaster will cover the mud and together, other team members who choose to participate and I will paint symbols on the wall fragment. A vital part of the project is a record of the response engendered in the viewers, so I expect to gather comments from members of the research community, visitors, and local residents. We will also schedule a "Children's Day" during the season using the bull as a thematic focus. I expect that we shall learn a great deal from the bull energy that we so invoke.