Burning Again

2023

Burning again interrogates historical modes of representation imposed on nature and the female body. Across cultures, both have been simultaneously exalted and subjected to control. This duality operates through the parallel mechanisms of admiration and domination.
The work draws on the figure of Shahmaran as a site where this contradiction becomes visible. Although associated with knowledge, healing, and an intrinsic bond with nature, her narrative is repeatedly resolved through betrayal and dismemberment. This recurring ending is not merely mythological—it models the systematic suppression of what resists control.
Rather than framing “rebirth” as a redemptive outcome, the work focuses on the persistence of burning. Here, burning is not purification, but a continuous cycle of intervention, fragmentation, and reconstruction. Within this cycle, nature and the female body are not passive entities, but contested terrains—constantly redefined and reconfigured.