Face with Chain in NYC 2009

Curator: Burhan Dogancay’s “Face with Chain in NYC” from 2009 is a powerful piece. It appears to be a mixed-media work combining photography, collage, and assemblage. Editor: My first thought? Intense. The fragmentation, the harsh contrast… it's like looking at a shattered mirror reflecting urban decay. Curator: Dogancay was well-known for documenting urban walls, their layers of posters, graffiti, and decay serving as a record of city life. Think about the social and political narratives embedded in those surfaces. What does layering the face achieve here? Editor: Well, it’s literally built-up, isn't it? The face seems pasted together from different sources, drawing on raw materials to replicate that peeling effect found on walls in derelict spaces. I wonder, how did Dogancay manipulate and juxtapose these different materials to convey this sense of…constraint, maybe, which the chains clearly underline. Curator: Constraint, yes, and perhaps also the constructed nature of identity in urban environments. This work reflects how identity can be fractured and reformed by the forces of the city. He’s capturing an undercurrent within what we deem to be publicly accepted portraiture. Editor: The materiality adds so much – the ripped edges, the peeling textures. I would say it also challenges traditional notions of photography, as the photograph is treated as a base material to be deconstructed and reformed into something new and gritty. Even using frames selectively placed over sections of the face draws your eye in certain ways. Curator: Precisely, the strategic incorporation of pre-existing frames within his broader commentary is what defines this image for me. It speaks to the role art serves in society and even dictates what imagery remains. Dogancay, like other prominent street artists, challenged art’s elitist institutions, offering social commentaries on the politics of urban existence and democratizing art. Editor: It makes you wonder, too, about the physical process of creating something like this. How many layers, how much time and labor went into replicating that weathered look? This aesthetic clearly challenges fine art traditions. Curator: An insightful point to end on, considering Dogancay's use of everyday materials to elevate them beyond their original context and generate critical thinking through his social, cultural and political landscape. Editor: Agreed. There's something deeply compelling about this piece, the way it makes you confront both the beauty and the brutality of urban life through repurposed material culture.