Body | Stalk Exhibition Text
BODY – NEST – HOME
Our body is a home that hides and shelters the “essence” within itself, like a spark.
Due to the dilatory – deceptive effects of perceptions, the idea that we are made up of only a body, leaves us in spiritual solitude in that home. The discovery of the inner world helps us recognize the endlessness of that home and meet the feeling that we are at home in this world indeed. In this sense, in an inner nature where there is no concept of boundaries, and in its vastness, the world grows into a home itself.
In all ancient cultures, existing in this life inside a human body, being mingled with nature and with the whole universe of beings, was a realm of vital knowledge and importance. They possessed the knowledge that when a human learns to see, one realizes they are closely connected to the immense web of life, and thus they can reach an infinite – vast inner realm and power.
The works in the series have been created with the feeling that beyond all the perception and power games which are inherent in the origin of human nature, each of us interacts with each other as single parts of that great structure forming humanity, and that there is a fluid field of consciousness keeping us together.
The paintings in the series are based on the transfer of a feeling evoked by the forest and the bodies which join its atmosphere and try to determine each other’s territory. It is the feeling about settling by making room for themselves in the space, the feeling of being in at home and being safe.
The exhibition comprises a production process of about five years and also features sculptures which are based on the concepts of Body and Nest.
The sculpture “The Body” is made up of fabric pieces painted over a lengthy period of time and combined in heaps to form a body which questions the concept of power, and the attribution of power to body; and which presents a kind of totem. “The Nest”, on the other hand, tries with a much more instinctive demeanor to establish contact with nature.
The basic material of “The Nest” is papier-mâché, and it constitutes a united structure made up of hundreds of swallow nests intricately weaved by putting together minuscule pieces, just like the method a swallow uses building its nest.
Putting on nature, wrapping oneself in animal pelts, feeling attracted to powers hidden in nature; experiencing all its sounds, its wild state, watching and following each other, the feeling of belonging in a zone, still constitute the most instinctive knowledge in our origins.
This is the point where the word STALK, part of the show’s title, comes into play. While it primarily refers to the main stem of a plant, it also means “to walk in a proud and angry way” and “to follow someone or an animal stealthily”. Just like animals, and plant stalks, sounds and behavioral patterns that are mingled together in a forest…
The feelings which shape all the perceptions of the body and which have their origins in acts such as settling on land, forming heaps and mounds, and protection mechanisms, gathering power in one body, constitute the fundamental starting point of the exhibition.
And like the cells that make up a body, materializing coexistence and the awareness of unity in nature are intrinsic in it as core ideas.
Cibali Glass Factory, Müstantik Street No:2 Cibali
During the exhibition, visitors can visit from 10.00 to 19.00 every day.