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ARTIST
STATEMENT
My paintings are about the intersections of different
cultural influences. Being
Turkish and born in London, I was privileged to live among diverse
traditions. I began
translating both languages and cultural differences at a young age. I continue to re-interpret cultural and art historical
influences in my paintings today. Pattern, traditional crafts, and
representational imagery all interconnect in my work. I present many
narratives and paint cross-cultural landscapes that reflect my
experience of the plural world we live in today.
In the “Silk Road”
paintings, I investigate the idea of cultural exchange and
interdependence. I am fascinated with this notion of a network of trade
routes that connected Central Asia to East Asia and the Mediterranean.
For example, it is amazing to trace the stylized tulip design
(which I borrowed from Turkish Tile) and how it was inspired by Asian
ceramics and reinterpreted. Later, the tulip designs show up in
Victorian ceramics and French textile. In the Silk
Road series, I paint imperial palaces, flat patterns, passages
through land and water all on the same surface.
There is no “pure” or “original” in my work, only translations
and reinterpretations. I paint
illusions of shallow space next to deep space and flat symbolic pattern
next to fields of color and line. I
am interested in how at the intersections of two different elements a
whole new configuration can arise. These transition points provide a
platform for re-thinking community. I depict the space of cultural
exchange, where one worldview does not over-dominate the other- instead
each element relies on one another for continuum.
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Map
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- Opening Reception:
Saturday, November 17 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
- Artist
present
VISITING HOURS:
Monday 9am-5pm
Tuesday - Thursday 9am-8pm
Friday 9am-2pm
Closed on weekends
Co-presented
with the Boston University Howard Thurman Center
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