CRY ME AN OXYMORON

Print, embroidery
Cotton, ink, fabric
Eight prints, 42.5 x 31 cm each, 2021

Project ‘‘Cry me an oxymoron’’ consists of 8 pairs of political oxymorons that are design like scrabble in English, Turkish and German.

To elaborate, for example, a German dictionary from 1992 defines ‘‘Demokratur’’ as a jargon between democracy and dictatorship. The term originated in the 1950s and since then we have seen many examples in different countries that fit this description. Another example is muscular liberalism, a form of liberalism advocated by former British Prime Minister David Cameron, which describes his policy of state multiculturalism. Most recently, Turkish President Erdoğan has been labeling anyone who opposes him, his party, as a terrorist. Students, farmers, academics, bakers, shopkeepers, artisans, journalists, medics, everyone is a terrorist! These oxymorons such as academics are terrorists, farmers are terrorists are examples of the propaganda techniques he uses a lot.

The aim of my project was to explore the danger of politicians promoting political oxymorons that conceal the
harm they do to people and the environment.

It seems that the forces of language mutation continue their inexorable advance. While they strengthen political propaganda, they lose their own meaning.