Artists honor women and pay tribute to earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria at the Vancouver Gallery

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Artists in Metro Vancouver honor women and honor victims of devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in an exhibition for International Women’s Day and the centenary of the Turkish Republic.

The exhibition, titled Women’s Art on Women’s Day, will be held in the Segal Building at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and features the work of 15 artists, all of whom are women.

Although preparations for the event began months ago, when powerful earthquakes struck in February, the artists decided to change their projects, working on paintings related to earthquakes and the power of women at the same time.

“The earthquakes hit us hard… I lost a very dear friend of mine,” said Eser Ince, who moved to Canada from Turkey in 2011 and now lives in North Vancouver.

Nilufar Mowaire painting a woman in light and dark. (Raff Arnott/CBC)

Niloufer Moirey, an Iranian-born artist who grew up in Istanbul, is organizing the exhibition with the Turkish-Canadian Society. The proceeds from the artists’ paintings will go to support the earthquake survivors.

“After that heartbreaking tragedy, we were all ready to paint a picture of a woman to show her strength,” said Moire.

“I tried to seize the power of women”

Moire’s painting shows a woman’s face in light and dark. The dark side shows damaged buildings and people trying to help others get out of the rubble, while the light side, full of blues and yellows, represents hope, she says.

Inanna Cusi, an Austro-Mexican painter and filmmaker, will show a piece titled Gaia after the ancient Greek goddess of the earth. It features the body of a woman holding the planet. The body and the ground are full of cracks.

She said, “I tried to record the strength of women and how we hold the world together but also death… the earthquake that destroyed our world and the hardships we endure at the same time.”

“So I guess it’s up to you to interpret how optimistic or pessimistic you are.”

Eser Ince’s painting is a tribute to her close friend who was lost in the earthquake in Turkey. (Raff Arnott/CBC)

Ince’s painting shows a building riddled with cracks and diagonal lines, representing fault lines. A woman appears below – a homage to her friend she lost in the earthquake.

Her friend was visiting her mother in a hospital in Iskenderun when the earthquake occurred.

“I am deeply hurt and shocked by what happened,” Ince said.

watch | HELP STILL NEEDED IN TURKEY AND SYRIA: Aid is still desperately needed a month after earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria a month after two deadly earthquakes devastated parts of Turkey and Syria rubble is cleared but recovery seems out of reach for hundreds of thousands of people They have been displaced.

Since earthquakes rocked southern Turkey and northern Syria a month ago, killing more than 45,000 people, hundreds of thousands of people still need adequate shelter and sanitation facilities, according to the United Nations. Only 10 percent of the appeal for $1 billion to help survivors has been funded, hampering efforts to address the humanitarian crisis.

About two million survivors were housed in temporary housing or evacuated from the quake-devastated area, according to Turkish government figures. About 1.5 million people have been settled in tents while another 46,000 have been moved into container homes.

Showing “women’s power”

Moire and Ince say it is essential to showcase the “power of women” through the paintings, especially as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the Turkish Republic and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1923, Turkey began efforts to modernize and secularize the country, which included passing equality legislation. Turkish women gained the right to vote in 1934.

“It’s a very important day,” Ince said.

For Moirey, it is doubly important to create art that empowers women because of the feminist movement in Iran that started in the fall of 2021.

A person holds a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a protest against Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi outside the United Nations in September 2022, in New York. Amini became an international symbol of the unrest in Iran after she died in police custody following allegations of violating the country’s strict hijab rules. (Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)

There were protests around the world after the death of 22-year-old Mohsa Amini after being detained by Iran’s morality police, allegedly for not wearing a headscarf properly.

She said, “As a woman, I always try to say through my paintings that women are strong.”

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