The Legitimacy of Domination

The Legitimacy of Domination traces a five-month period that began with the artist’s voluntary involvement in the treatment and care of farm animals affected by the forest fire that broke out in Manavgat, Antalya, on July 28, 2021. While applying ointments to the burns of animals rescued from the fire and monitoring their body temperatures and breathing, the artist witnessed not only the traces left by the fire on their bodies, but also those left by human intervention. She noticed plastic identification tags that had melted onto the ears of sheep and adhered to their skin. Deformed by the heat of the fire, these tags had become new wounds on the animals’ bodies. The discomfort she felt upon seeing the numbers on the tags became one of the starting points of the work. At the time, each animal had been given the name of one of the volunteers who had rescued them. They were no longer merely numbers to her. Each had a distinct character; they experienced fear and pain, responded to pain, and formed bonds with humans. Could reducing a living being to nothing more than a number be one of the ways in which its individuality and sense of self are rendered invisible? Starting from this question, the artist reinterpreted animal identification tags in the work. This time, however, the numbers on the tags were transformed into dates referring to various historical events in which animals were subjected to mass killing as a result of human domination and violence. The Legitimacy of Domination is a work that commemorates the animals who lost their lives in the fire while also questioning how human beings legitimize their domination over other living beings. At the same time, it is an attempt to remember and look anew at the beings whose names, bodies, and stories we have rendered invisible. A cast plaster human ear with a yellow animal identification tag attached to it, presented within a wooden frame with a mat. The numbers on the tags bear dates marking instances of mass killings of animals (June 3, 1910, Hayırsız Ada; September 3, 1939, Britain; November 5, 2020, Denmark; 1590–1591, the monkeys of Istanbul…). Each framed work is unique; the date appearing on the ear and tag varies from one piece to another. Each work is signed by the artist and delivered with a certificate of authenticity.