In search of Domes…

I have been obsessed with circles for a long time and in fact one work of mine, Ringe Raja, was a geodesic dome. While here as artist-in-residence at amberPlatform Istanbul, it is my intention to extend this particular work through explorations of circular spaces.

During my first week in Istanbul I was looking for an alternative to the geodesic dome and investigated alternative dome options. I looked into using an already existing dome, and Istanbul is a perfect place for them. Domes in mosques and domes in hammams, they are in fact everywhere, the skyline would seem incomplete without them!

Possible options: There are many mosques around, but they are generally not used for anything else other than for prayer, so a mosque is not an option. The hammams are an option as there are a few that are in disrepair and could be used if the timing was right. It was brought to my attention that an exhibition entitled hammam project was using a hammam in Cihangir and I should see if I could also use it…

…The exhibition was still on and I was lucky enough to visit it as well as explore the space. I started imagining how to use it, and thought about using it for other projects – a dome camera obscura for example?…

After my explorations I came out to discuss what was going to happen to the hammam after the exhibition with Jesse Gagliardi, who told me that the following week renovations were to begin.

After exploring the insides of the hammam dome and realising that I could not use it, I started to see if I could find a dome that was not in use. I came across domes along my walk back from Cihangir, but none are available for my purposes.