Pages from the Book of Istanbul

                                                    In May of 2012 Louise Markus travels to Istanbul to work and stay at
                                            Halka Art Project. She creates a series of collages based on 16th
                                        century Islamic miniature illuminations, inserting depictions of
                                                       contemporary daily Istanbul life within the miniature framework
                                                       and patterns. The illuminations, previously available only to the
                                        aristocracy is appropriated to form a new paradigm in which
                                        stories of Istanbul's contradictions are celebrated by ordinary
                                        people: the lap top user smokes a nargile in an internet café, two
                                                        Muslim women wait for the Tramvay sitting next to a poster
                                                        advertising a heavy metal festival. After 2 months in Istanbul,
                                                        Markus creates "Pages from the Book of Istanbul", an exhibition at
                                                        Kabine Nadire, a local gallery. The show features 6 collages, the
                                                        original charcoal studies for the collages and an installation of the
                                                        drawings blown up and assembled as a maquette street parade to
                                                        fit the gallery's showcase window.