ARTIST STATEMENT

I believe art is a space where I try to make sense of things I cannot resolve within my inner world, and through these unresolved issues, I communicate with others. In this sense, I can say that my completed anthropology degree contributed a lot to me, and supported my search for meaning. I try to experiment with all artistic practices through which I can express myself and to see the outcomes of my thoughts. Nature, one of my greatest sources of inspiration, is mostly a playground where lines and stains dance in my mind; while humans and everything related to them are a collection of emotions and thoughts I cannot grasp, watching from a rocking chair in the distance.

My purpose in making art is mostly to communicate with people who share the same feelings as me and to meet them on the same plane from time to time. For this reason, instead of limiting myself, I make an effort to try all the techniques that interest me. I can say that the techniques I mostly use in my works are oil painting, printmaking, video, and pastel. I sometimes notice that my use of lines stands out in my works. For me, this is mostly about defining boundaries, and these limitations help me place concepts or situations that I care about from life into an imaginary framework.

Among the subjects I explore, I can say that concepts such as lack of communication, alienation, loneliness, and self are the most prominent. I believe that Istanbul, Beyoğlu, where I was born and raised, had a great influence on my concern for these concepts. This place where I grew up taught me loneliness within crowds, being one among many, and stepping aside from the flow to look inward. Books, another source of inspiration for me, have also helped me understand over the years which topics bother me and which topics I dwell on. Among these books, Albert Camus’s novel “The Stranger” and José Saramago’s novel “Blindness” have significantly influenced me, and consequently, my work.

Inspired by these points, I sometimes try to explore the loneliness within crowds, sometimes the silent crowd within, sometimes self-alienation, and sometimes that invisible boundary in communication.