Murat Palta (b. Hatay, 1990) is a contemporary Turkish artist, currently based in Istanbul, Turkey. His work is an intensely playful and critical interrogation of artistic tradition, invention, method, and purpose. Palta draws on global traditions, collapsing tropes of so-called “Eastern” and “Western” cultural moments, events, circumstances, and histories, with inventive and provocative narrative destabilizations of the classical Ottoman, Mughal, and Persian miniature painting. What began as a small experiment to explore hybrid pasts and futures became a critical form of questioning and unsettling how we think of ourselves through our cultural (mis)productions. This visual essay features four more recent works by Palta: Sesame Street, Cajamarca, and the paired work Barbenheimer, selected by the theme editors. Short captions, developed in conversation between Palta and Associate Editor of Design Ozayr Saloojee, provide a little more context (and content) for their associate scenes.

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