Wishes from Hereafter
2024
Installation project by Yekta Çetinkaya (contributions from Ferhat Demirel)
(Wood, metal, plexiglass, 3D-printed models, fabric, sand, LED lights, acrylic paint. Dimensions: 7'x14'x12' ft.)
Wishes from Hereafter is the result of an artist residency that engages science fiction as a form of practice and politics for imagining alternative futures, completed by the artist between 2023 and 2024 at Artengine.
A work of speculative fiction, Wishes from Hereafter examines through a diasporic lens the significance of traditions, narratives, and rituals that are primarily informed by nature and land, notably amid climate change, wars, and mass migration.
The monument located at the center of the work which takes its form from a motif found in Anatolian kilims (tapestries), simulates a wishing tree, a tradition where strips of cloth, ribbons, or prayer beads are tied to trees as a healing ritual or to wish for good health. The metal bars that spear the tree-like structure present contradicting implications; they extend out resembling branches while also suggesting a violent act.
The artifacts that are found throughout the space on a bed of sand pay homage to the practice of shadow play, an ancient tradition of storytelling prominent in Anatolia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. The figurative imagery digitally drawn by Ferhat Demirel (contributor) that narrates scenes of rural life and migration are laser cut onto wood and positioned inside these sculptural objects alongside 3D printed forms to construct mini theater sets. These fictional artifacts contain and transmit stories that explore our relationship with natural environments.
Acting as a monument of warning as well as healing, Wishes from Hereafter questions how a region’s culture which has deceptively become associated with and implicated in conflict, whether through outside influences or by self-representation, can help us reconcile for our shared futures.
