The artist separates the woman from the man with a modernist perspective and draws attention to the other/inferior nature of the woman. In doing so, it de-identifies women and gives internal conflict through their bodies. The artist lengthens bodies or limbs and combines them with bright and striking colors in order to make visible the psychological tensions and pathological conditions created by the concepts of "sexual politics", "oppression", patriarchy in women. The colors underline the dramaticness of the situation, with brushstrokes that feel vicious. In fact, the artist is evolving the subject of women, which he has captured with a modernist point of view, with a postmodern approach. The idea that women are in need of a new language and a new discursiveness, united by post-structuralist feminist philosophers such as Helene Cixous, Kristeva, and Luce Irigay, is also realized in Dilek Mentes with her compositional setup, brush driving and color selection. In the postfeminist approach, the main issue is not to be like a man anymore than the idea of equality. An important point for Mentes is the issues of "talking like a woman" and "talking like a woman", especially as Irigay deals with. Here the artist speaks as a woman, and the work speaks like a woman. So what do these concepts mean? “Speaking as a woman” indicates both a psychological position and a social position in the current situation. On the other hand, “speaking like a woman” means being open to the incomprehensibility and plurality of meaning, the uncontrollability of truth and knowledge, the plurality of perspective, that is, the qualities that the male language always tends to prevent, eliminate and suppress. Mentes women are among the current works in which concepts are carried to paintings, lines and colors…
Sevil DOLMACI
Art Historian, Critic.
