İris Ergül, Güneş Terkol

SOMArts | San Francisco, USA

SAHA provides support for İris Ergül’s and Güneş Terkol’s new projects for "Sounds Like Home: Longing and Comfort through Lullabies", at SOMArts. The exhibition is curated by Bengü Gün and Duygu Gün, and held on 16 July - 22 August 2021. Sounds Like Home not only questions how cultural memory is preserved and transmitted through simple melodic messages from childhood, but also challenges the way lullabies, family stories and fairy tales transmit gender roles and cultural norms while affirming that culture is dynamic. “Sounds Like Home creates a safe and comfortable space for people to recall their childhood memories and anchor back with their cultural roots while creating a bridge between cultures.

This multidisciplinary exhibition features an international roster of artists from different fields of study and creative practice. By using found materials, Anastasia Georgievskaya’s Second Childhood project is historically and plastically connected with the birth of her child, with changes in her psyche, physiology and life mission. Güneş Terkol and İris Ergül both use fabric and woven materials to create large-scale installations that draw from personal stories, mythology, philosophy, and rituals. 

Photographer and National Geographic Explorer Hannah Reyes Morales’ Living Lullabies explores how global issues are reflected in children’s songs and bedtime stories around the world. Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell fuses traditional art forms passed through the diaspora to create work that speaks to the power of history and how visual art aids in defining culture and identity. Transdisciplinary artist Rashin Fahandej’s A Father’s Lullaby is an ongoing series that leverages personal memory to interrogate the structural violence of mass incarceration. 

Participants: Anastasia Georgievskaya, Ceyda Oskay, Daniel Konhauser, Duygu Gün, Elena Mencarelli, Güneş Terkol, Hannah Reyes Morales Husniya Khujamyorova İris Ergül, Nooshin Hakim, Rashin Fahandej, Taro Hattori, Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell

About SOMArts

SOMArts Cultural Center, founded in 1979, cultivates access to the arts within the Bay Area by collaborating with community-focused artists and organizations. Together, we engage the power of the arts to provoke just and fair inclusion, cultural respect and civic participation.

SOMArts plays a vital role in the arts ecosystem by helping activate the arts citywide. We do this by providing space and production support for non-profit events, as well as fairs and festivals throughout the Bay Area, and offering a robust program of art exhibitions, classes, events and performances that are affordable and accessible to all. SOMArts’ exhibition programs receive critical support from the San Francisco Arts Commission and The San Francisco Foundation, and are sponsored in part by a grant from Grants for the Arts.