“History is a child building a sand-castle by the sea, and that child is the whole majesty of humanity’s power in the world.” (Heraclitus)
This is another photographic project on which I’m currently working:
See the rest on this page.
Some years ago, I acquired some mannequin heads from the University at which I teach; it has a hairdressing program and these are training models. They have been in hiding for a while and just recently, while cleaning out the storage locker, I remembered them. I decided to amuse myself by arranging the heads on top of driftwood sticks I obtained from the beach beneath the Lion’s Gate Bridge on the Burrard Reserve and painted in various colours.
See more here.
(A few pages from the bookwork)
My bookworks were selected for the 5th International Artist’s Book Triennial by curator Kestutis Vasiliunas.They were exhibited in March 2009 at the Leipzig Book Fair in Germany and at the Gallery “Arka” in Vilnius, Lithuania.
(Curator Kestutis Vasiliunas in Leipzig)
The exhibition will also be hosted at the following venues over the next year:
2009 September 12 – December 13, Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg, Denmark
2010 Spring, Gallery Hübner Bokform, Halmstad, Sweden
2010 May, Seoul International Book Arts Fair, Seoul, Korea
2010 Venice, Italy
Here is the statement from the Art Centre Silkeborg Bad:
“[The exhibition will feature] Artists´ Books collected directly from the international and censored [juried] triennial in Vilnius, which for a number of years has been an important centre for this very special artistic expression, where graphic artists, blandformskunstnere, photographer[s], poets and conceptual artists consider the idea of “books” from different viewpoints. Artist’s books [are] an artistic expression which was developed in the 1960s and enlarge the concept of the traditional book.”
(Exhibition in Leipzig)
And here is the curatorial statement from Kestutis Vasiliunas:
“330 artists from 56 different countries sent their books for the 5th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius 2009. The jury selected only 131 artists for the exhibition. It is sad and disappointing that so many artists were not included [in] the exhibition. But by organising this jubilee triennial, my purpose pursued was to make it simply the best. Not the best of just “my” triennials but, modestly speaking, at least to ensure that it is the top artistic level in Europe. I would like to thank all the authors who created and sent their books.
The theme of the 5th International Artist’s Book Triennial is Text. If compared with the themes of previous triennials, this theme is as if a step backwards, something more traditional. Probably. But if so, then first of all, that small step is a step towards oneself, towards one’s culture, towards one’s country, its uniqueness, language and writing. It is turning back towards each other, an attempt to establish a contact with [another] human being, irrespective of the country he or she lives in, language he or she speaks, religion he or she believes in. Letters, diaries or poetry expressed in words, images, from the heart. They are the words (In the beginning was the Word, John 1. 1) that acquired “body” from paper, metal, wood or any other material. They are the words that turned into an avalanche of typographic text, calligraphic letters or entirely vanished from the book pages with only punctuation marks, imprints on the paper leaf left.
The 5th Triennial displays the most interesting artist’s books from all over the world. It is the most wonderful experience to see [the] culture, traditions of different countries, [and] art schools reflected in the artists’ books created by the artists. Paper typographic books and books printed by the use of classic graphic techniques: wood engraving, silk-screen printing or lithography; books printed by mixed techniques by combining possibilities of digital printing with drawing, collage and object; concept and handmade embroidered books; books objects, le parello and Flux books. The key role here is played by the idea which materialises in multidimensional forms, and it is absolutely unimportant what means of expression were used in the book. Thus, whether they are “bibliophilic” books or experimental or books objects, all of them by supplementing each other and contrasting with each other help to reveal miraculous and mysterious world of the artist’s book.
This exhibition is an invitation for dialogue. An invitation to share your “text” with others, an invitation to read the other authors’ words carefully, and to feel his or her soul trembling, heart beating. Thus, please accept this invitation.
Like always we have made the special conceptual catalogue full in colour. The catalogue has modern design, printed on good paper, whose sheets were ripped apart and bound by hand. The catalogue has an edition of 500, all catalogues are numbered.”
Click here to see an excerpt from the catalogue.
I created a small shrine to the remnants of my childhood in our computer room, a shrine which evolved over the course of a few days from a fairly minimalist construction to this, more complex, version. Curious to see my dolls against the summer’s fabulously blue day and night sky, I also photographed them outside on the terrace.
See a few more photographs here.
My cat Aran seemed quite interested in this piece – see his reaction here.
I’ve just added a new page for an exhibition that I curated at the Nanaimo Art Gallery entitled Desire and Domination: Imagining the Psyche. Held from Oct 10 until Nov 15, this show featured the work of Davida Kidd and Diana Thorneycroft. See the page here.
Last night, in front of the Queen Anne’s Lace piece I hung up the two large photographs bound for Cracow in a few days. I had originally intended to hang these from a clothesline in either the ruined house at the top of the hill or, possibly, one of the ruined windmills. However, when I was downstairs in the studio in the morning unpacking my tube, I noticed the two trees standing just outside with the town panorama in the background and thought that it might work to install them there. I put up the string but when I tried to affix one of the prints, the wind was just too strong; rather than ripple gently in the breeze, the print was swung violently up in the air so I decided against it. Instead, I grabbed two more wooden easels, set them up on either side of the still life, and hung the two photographs from the line strung between them. I was interested in seeing how they would look in the candlelight. I also decided that I would perform some calisthenics in front of them to see what these movements would look like captured on film. I liked the shadows created by the movements of my arms, legs and hair and the way that my moving body became translucent when photographed in front of the still objects, all except my feet.
See pictures here.
Saturday – market day in Turgutreis. After breakfast with Seray, I grabbed my bike and rode up the hill towards the gumbet – disused cistern – at the top of the hill and took the opportunity to take a few pictures of my little Styrofoam lily pad koreks, still floating around on the water along with the discarded pop and water bottles and other assorted junk. Whitewashed the last time I’d seen it, between now and then the cistern has been spray painted with graffiti once again. I rode up and over the hill behind the Academy, pausing briefly at the top to take a few pictures of the ten day vacation homes, so named because they’re owned by foreigners who only use them ten days a year. Other than that, they stand vacant.
Earlier this week, I received an email from the President of the Cracow International Print Triennial informing me that my works had qualified to the Phase 2 of selection of the International Print Triennial Krakow 2009. The deadline for submission is June 15 – not very far away – and so I needed to get my work printed so it can be sent off tout suite. Asking around the market area for large format printing, a restaurateur took me to a tiny stationery and art supplies shop which, lo and behold, had a large format printer. Amazingly, I had my flash drive in my purse with two of the images on it (this without any planning at all on my part) – what are the chances of that, I thought to myself. Anyway, I watched and waited as the guy and his helper printed out my pictures in between helping what seemed like a million people with photocopy jobs. With my two rolled prints in hand, I then hunted around for a big plastic tube, finally finding one at a hardware store. I inserted the prints into the tube, taped up the ends with plastic and strapped the whole thing to my bike’s crossbar with two luggage straps bought at the dollar store. Because the tube is quite big around, it was difficult to ride since my left knee was pointed out at an awkward angle. Anyway, I managed to make my way out of town back along the main road and decided to stop at the Kadikalesi beach for a break. After enjoying some time at the Kekik Beach Bar in Kadikalesi, I rearranged my tube on my handlebars and pedaled back along the main drag.
See a few pictures here.
Yesterday, I hopped on my bike, intending to retrieve my korek from the beach. When I got down there, though, I saw immediately that someone else had removed them for me – they were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps someone took a fancy to them and carried them off home – I hope so, rather that than have them end up in the garbage or burned. I stopped for a beer and a mixed toast at the Club Gumusluk restaurant and bar on the beach and shared my sausage and cheese sandwich with a pregnant cat who had a tiny triangular face and a largish belly. I am a sucker for Turkish cats. On the way back, I acquired more korek stalks from the hillside to replace those lost and some stalks of Queen Anne’s lace with which I will compose a still life assemblage later.
Over the past few days I have painted ten thin banners of translucent tracing paper in different colours to more or less match my painted korek stalks. I was thinking about hanging them up in a tetractys configuration behind an installation of korek, and then later making them into lamp shades to put around my tea light candles. I installed them in the studio on three pieces of string stretched between two easels, on either side of a still life of Queen Anne’s lace, two hands, a silver tea pot, korek heads and candles on the wooden table. On the floor in front of the table I placed the final two banners on either side of a pedestal with a still life of red and pink sardunya and jasmine flowers; on these banners I placed 6 glasses with silver korek heads resting in water and 6 small candles. I enjoyed the shadows cast by the plants on the wall and ceiling of the studio; these shadows moved and changed as the candles flickered and the water in the glasses trembled.
See pictures here.
After having suspended the korek from a clothesline near the pond, the next day I placed them in the trees around one of Eyip’s figurative sculptures near the entrance to the Academy. I enjoyed seeing their bright colours against the pearly whiteness of the sculpture and also the shadows of the stalks as they fell across the figure. Since the ground around the Academy is rock-hard and pretty much impossible to dig into, I had decided last night that I would install the korek on the beach somehow, since the sand would be easier to work with. I gathered up my 6 smaller korek stalks, put them in a large blue garbage bag, hung my mannequin-hand bag over my handlebars, jumped on my bike and headed down to Gumusluk beach.
I first set up my small assemblage on the base of the abstracted figurative sculpture in the middle of the beach next to the cemented-over house. Then, spying two nice feathery trees in the sand a few meters away, I decided to move them there. I hung the red and gold tablecloth from one of the trees with string, then planted the six korek stalks and the two hands holding crepe paper ribbons in the sand around that tree. It was very windy and the ribbons blew briskly in the breeze. Seeing the coloured stalks standing around the slim white-painted tree trunk amused me and I lay on the sand for a while next to it. The sun was very warm and I watched two wind surfers struggle with the wind and try to zip across the bay on their boards. Since it was really too windy to try to ride back with my big bag of korek flapping into the bike tires, I simply left them planted there on the beach.
