Ayse Erkmen’s site-specific sculptures activate the materials found in a particular place to shed light on the factors and histories that have lent it shape. She will often work with evanescent substances such as water or air or use pre-existing objects collected from a site only to return them to their place of origin at the project’s end. As a result, lasting evidence of her projects often takes narrative form. Many of Erkmen’s works are characterized by her propensity to activate inanimate objects, to endow them with unexpected action and movement, and to temporarily lend them new life. In Sculptures on Air (1997), a legendary piece created for Skulptur Projekte Münster, Erkmen worked with sculptures taken from the façades of war-destroyed buildings. …see the entire article in the print version of January/February’s Sculpture magazine.
