Kezban Arca Batıbekİ
I’m not someone who likes to give mottos to every work.
Can you generally tell us about your art production ?
I started my art production with painting, over time I’ve tried different dimensions and mediums in order to avoid the vicious cycle which every artist probably finds themselves in. I started with installations and short films, finally my escape route approached me with photography. Since 2005 I’ve been working on painting also intensively with photography. In spite of taking photographs for many years, I’ve tried to find the same surreal and fictional world as in my paintings, when I finally established that,I began to exhibit my work. There are so many good photographers around, the only way to stand out from them is to built a world that belongs to me. So I started out from the objects at my house. I built my photographs with the logic of my paintings by escaping from actual time and space.
What would you say about your work at Warhola Exhibiton ?
Two photographs which are going to take place in the exhibition belong to an era whereI focused on “violance against women”. I’m not someone who likes to givemottostoevery work. Although, this time for my work at the Warhola exhibition there is no needfor readingbetween the lines.
Do you think that your art production is in a transfiguration process in communication networks such as media and networks ?
I will answer these two questions together. These questions reminded me of the doll which I used for my short film “I Shot Andy Warhol”, the doll was sitting and holding a TV with one hand. In his era Warhol used the power of media all the way, it’s inevitable notto imagine him working miracles on the internet if he was alive. My work isdisseminating rather than transfigurating, so on behalf of my art I can say it is an approach to reach a major audience. For example, I caninstantly answer questions which come from the far end of the world. On the other hand, there are so many artists using benefits of the internet in order to make their art and spread it at the same time. I don’t enjoy being sincere with social media, I rather love enjoying the outer world.
What do you think about the platforms of art critism in Turkey ?
I’m not sure if such platform exists. Now, there are so many magazines and blogs to keep track of. I can’t be able to reach them all but rarely when I comeacrossone with a genuine criticism I’m glad for it. Turkey; in the name of criticism, usually don’t want hurtyour feelings so they avoid meddling in the articles, these articles are usually a collection from press releases. The opposite scenario is they write it in order to abuse the artist, also there are untouchable ones. First of all a critic; should have an equal distance to the gallery, artist and to curator so he/she can be honest. In addition to this, you should try to be the unpopular one..
If so, in what way and to what extent is thishappening ?
I will answerthese two questions together. These questions reminded me of the doll which I used for my short film “I Shot Andy Warhol”, the doll was sitting and holding a TV with one hand. In his era Warhol used the power of media all the way, it’s inevitable notto imagine him working miracles on the internet if he was alive. My work isdisseminating rather than transfigurating, so on behalf of my art I can say it is an approach to reach a major audience. For example, I caninstantly answer questions which come from the far end of the world. On the other hand, there are so many artists using benefits of the internet in order to make their art and spread it at the same time. I don’t enjoy being sincere with social media, I rather love enjoying the outer world.
Arslan Sükan
In the end, the image is limited to its boundaries but can serve to trigger certain ideas.
Can you generally tell us about your art production ?
Most of the time I try to construct an image of a concept. It is a process of building mental representations of an idea using an image which becomes an issue of perception (physically or psychologically) and representation.So my work mainly deals with these questions.In the end, the image is limited to its boundaries but can serve to trigger certain ideas. Untill now I have worked with the medium of photography and now I m experimenting with new mediums, platforms as well as new themes to be released soon.
What would you say about your work at Warhola Exhibiton ?
Since we have to deal about presenting a work in three different environments, gallery space, printed magazine and a website; these different environments creates an issue of perception, representation and context.
In order to overcome these issues, I have decided to take a different approach. I will be showing a code(qr)(that contains data) in all three platforms. By doing that, i do eliminate the issues to some degree that I have mentioned above. Once you scan this code with your smartphone, the work will reveal itself in your phone.The code that I m using is not the actual work but a step to reach and understand the work.So the whole work actually is a process of an action that will expose itself in a new environment which is your phone.
Neither the code nor the new environment which work will reveal itself is only and the actual work but the whole process becomes complete as a work with human interaction.
(the readers in this case, simply download the free apps like qrreader or kaywa reader to your phones and scan the right page with your phone. The work will present itself and becomes complete.)
Do you think that your art production is in a transfiguration process in communication networks such as media and networks ?
Yes it does. Again this different environments creates issues of perception, representation and context.
If so, in what way and to what extent is this happening ?
The object and the image of it has different perceptive qualities. If I have to give a simple example, meeting someone in real life versus meeting someone in virtual world creates different experiences.
What do you think about the platforms of art critism in Turkey ?
I would prefer having an okey critic about my work rather than not having any critic at all. Artists needsmany objective critics. I don’t think we have enough art criticism in Turkey. We need many independent art critics in this country.
Sılacan Köseler
I can construct visual solgans that examine mutal relationships, cultural phenomenons and overly coded fantasies, while constantly trying to provoke that ‘ever seeing eye’.
Can you tell us about your art production ?
I love sketching and painting. I’ve been collecting objects, since I started rambling the streets alone. The moment I felt this passion of collecting getting out of hand, I came to a point where I had to start throwing away and keeping some of the objects. This situation helped me to bring some of these objects together with a clear vision and helped me to settle the ideas that came in to my mind. Afterwards, I started to add new objects to my collection with a similar tendency, I started to produce sculptures and relief. In my work I search for practical emphasises with the combination of materials, textures, colours, to form the starting of quite a lot of subjective and intuitional pieces. I can construct visual solgans that examine mutal relationships, cultural phenomenons and overly coded fantasies, while constantly trying to provoke that ‘ever seeing eye’. Within the same context, I enjoy presenting the disappearing ideals and values of our society that we are slowly losing grip of.
What would you say about your work in Warhola exhibition ?
Two objects, that I got to understand, was how hard it is for them to co-exist considering that they are now obsilete regardless of how throughly you search for them; A soap dish shaped as a womens hand, made from cheap plastic and degraded turqoise tile…a project I dedicated to the cult combination between these two. Since the Warhola project will be displayed at the exhibition and through the website as well as published in the magazine creating a eventual interactive publication, I also thought about how it will appear in the photographs, this directly inspired my work too. I tried to create a two dimesitional graphical impact by considering the element of photography without trying to relate it to its functional reality of being a trace of what can be seen from infront of the whole. I tried to refer to confusions in a perception of format that can often happen viewing cloudy images that do not relate to what is said on the tag. I tired to create a ‘totemistic’ image in the name of the extinct co-existence of the torquise degraded tile and the soap dish shaped as the nail polished hand of married women ‘since it has a ring on it’.
Do you think that your art production is in a transfiguration process such as media and networks ?
Every visual which cycles through the communication networks, such as internet and the media, experiences a quite different reality. It re-codes the published visual and the art object. Moreover if an object circles around so much it can become anonymous.
If so, in what way or to what extent it is happening ?
Proper reality of three-dimensional work, that is reduced to a two-dimensional image mostly takes a serious loss of its impact and even through this it can entirely void the representation. According to its place and object , its visual supports eachother. Sometimes it’s just all about luck, when I especially lean in on colour and texture in the work. Hence, the impact you can get from a photograph of the genuine work.
What do you think about the art criticism platform in Turkey ?
I can’t help but imagine having much more of an alternative environment. I think there is an approach issue, in order to be more operational. Collective workshops and increasing of the art institutes is needed. But I think that rare environments will break away from the individual and traditonal route and make both art criticism and production more productive and independent.
I am sure that, in time, units that produce good critical work and thought will find milieus that are more authentic and free.
Could you tell us generally about your art production?
Dear Efe, my work and areas of interest could be summarized as art, especially in terms of peinture and poetry on the one hand, and on the other as essentially moving between existentialist thought and, through a horizontal shift, Marxism and its derivatives. In this respect, it could be said that, by breaking the routine through humor, absurdity, and unexpected provocative acts I have made certain forms of communication and action, which may be considered as artistic, my own as a way of life.
Could you tell us about your works in the Warhola Exhibition?
Bu çalışma 1989 da ampullerle yaptığım işin neonlu vesiyonu. This work is a new version of a piece I made in 1989 with light bulbs, this time made with neon lights. I showed it at my exhibition entitled “İdi İdim İdik” in 2000. Of course Edison is a symbol here. Edison and his group have realized around 1500 technological inventions and discoveries.
In our time technology has turned into such a thing that it is destroying our world. And people cannot prevent this, the progress of technology. So, it is destroying us and the world in spite of us. So, when I said damn Edison I wanted to emphasize this paradox. Look at all the things that happened to us, the wars, the massacres that happened because of electricity.
Do you believe that your art production is transmogrified through communication channels such as the Internet or various similar channels?
Yes, but this does not include peinture. It offers many creative and convenient possibilities for production in the areas of photography, video and literature.
How do you view the platform of art criticism in Turkey?
Well, some random and contrived exhibition reviews published in various magazines and newspapers, which have been written through information gathered from the internet or those that have been written without any artistic knowledge are terrible. Some of these are the wannabe hired pens of bourgeois castles. But, besides these, there are also many well-equipped young people. I am sure that, in time, units that produce good critical work and thought will find milieus that are more authentic and free.
