Servet Koçyiğit

Loves me Loves me not, 2012, Pirinç, gümüş

The words “Loves Me” and “Loves Me Not” are inscribed in silver on brass knuckle-dusters, resembling pieces of jewellery. The artist transforms two objects ordinarily worn on the hand and used as weapons in physical assaults into works of art, while allowing them to retain their potential function as instruments of violence. As in several of the artist’s other works, a social issue is addressed through an ironic and witty visual language. Particularly in a country such as Türkiye, where women are subjected to violence and even murdered on an almost daily basis, the work offers a bitter reference to a profound social wound. Perhaps even more disturbing than this cultural condition is the fact that “love” is frequently invoked as an excuse by the perpetrator of violence. Through irony, the work exposes the absurdity, contradiction, and falsity of violence—and even murder—committed in the name of love.