ST IVES.- This autumn, Tate St Ives presents a brand-new work by Turkish artist Cansu Çakar. Entitled New Rarities, the miniaturist-inspired painting installation is the result of two residencies in St Ives, undertaken by Çakar in 2024, during which she became interested in representations of seashells, imagining them as both homes and graves. This led to an exploration of the shifting cultural value of natural resources – including Tyrian purple and Cornish tin – and the exploitation of landscapes and people through their extraction.

Laboriously derived from murex sea snails, Tyrian purple was named for its origins in Tyre, a centre of the ancient civilisation of Phoenicia that spread from modern-day Lebanon to trade and settle across the Mediterranean. This rare dye has been used to colour many precious artefacts through time. In parallel, tin from Cornwall and Devon was also a valuable resource across the ancient world. It has even been suggested that the Phoenicians came to Cornwall in search of it, though there is no archaeological evidence for this.

Çakar’s installation re-examines concepts of value, rarity and cultural heritage by speculatively tracing such ancient trade routes, real or imagined. Unfolding across a shell-like spiral of paper resembling an ancient map, it offers a story guided more by oral traditions than historical records.

Cansu’s practice blends traditional art forms, such as miniature painting, with contemporary art practices and topics. By doing so, she challenges the stereotypical classification of traditional expressions. In her drawings, paintings and workshops, she uses personal investigation and storytelling to delve into social, historical, and architectural topics, including expected roles for women and historical and contemporary interpretations of Near Eastern and Mediterranean cultures. Her work creates a symbolic dialogue that hints at seeming contradictions and continuities of traditions in today's world.

Cansu Çakar was born in Istanbul in 1988, and now lives and works in İzmir, Turkey. The exhibition is curated by Anne Barlow, Director of Tate St Ives. Tate St Ives (UK) and the SAHA Association (Istanbul, Turkey) are delighted to work in partnership, creating residency and exhibition opportunities for Turkish artists that build awareness in the UK of contemporary art from Turkey.

The exhibition coincides with the first major UK museum exhibition of Romani visual artist, educator and activist Małgorzata Mirga-Tas. Open from 19 October 2024 – 5 January 2025, the show features a range of large-scale collages, including several new vibrant textiles, as well as three pieces recently acquired by Tate, the first works by a Romani artist to join the collection.