Punisher exhibits the machines that once punished, and today continue to punish, women for their mere existence in an increasingly polarized bicultural environment of Turkey. Ideal women are portrayed simultaneously as sexy as a decolletage-baring Marilyn Monroe, as innocent as a hijabi Türkan Şoray, as cool as a car grease covered Megan Fox, all while retaining the ladylike manners of an Ottoman princess. Young women are forced to pluck their own existence from this barrage of contradictions they see in media everyday. By walking through the exhibition, viewers become a part of this experience; ultimately, they are also punished. 

For both of the videos I chose movies I had either seen in my childhood or were infamous in terms of their female characters (ex. Pamela Anderson in Baywatch). I tried to find counterparts for the femme fatales of either media culture, and edited each scene to form a cohesive flow of events. My intention for the viewer is to illustrate the physical effects of being stuck in between these Eastern and Western conceptions of womanhood, especially when one feels like they fit into neither, instead creating a black shadow "gash" in the projections with their presence. Viewers are intended to walk through these projections, creating these gashes and reflecting the projections on themselves, experiencing the impossibility of co-existence within the two realities.

The prostrating sculpture is a reference to the escapist media practices of often conservative groups, and Turkey's increasing Islamic public sentiment of the last decade. The placement of her body towards the corner of the room represents how stuck women feel in this dichotomy, while also resembling the posture of a punished child, as the criminalization of womanhood often begins at an extremely young age. 

In addition to being inspired by Shirin Neshat's work, the idea of projection came from my childhood, where villagers would often come together in a town square and watch old Turkish movies outside, on a projector. In future iterations I would continue to explore overlapping projections and work on creating an immersive, chaotic soundscape to accompany the image. I would also redo the current setup with two projectors of the same brand or specifications, as this will allow the images to blend better.