Matter and Memory

Hürrem / Barış Pirhasan

2011-12-27T03:46:00.007+02:00

"...Filmlerdeki gibiydi buluşma ağır çekim
İzledi sahneyi sincap, kartal ve kirpi
Ayın on dördünü beklemeden doğuvermiş mehtap
Cırcır böcekleri bülbüller şırıl şırıl akan dere
Enderunda uyuyadursun ut, tambur, kemançe ve kanun
Damat İbrahim’in meşhur düğünü kaç para!
Hesapsız kitapsız bir deli sevdaya
Alkış tutuyor toprak, su ve rüzgar
Süleyman kucakladığı an Hurrem’i
İlk defa sahicikten (ama kısacık bir an)
Cihan padişahlığı neymiş, bildi..."
Barış Pirhasan, Hürrem, İletisişim Yayınları

via http://cerenoykut.blogspot.com/

"Etik, iyi karşılaşmalar örgütlemektir."

2011-12-02T22:23:00.002+02:00

"..aslında "duygulanışlarından başka hiç bir şeyle" tanıyamadığımız bedenimiz, karmaşık yapısı nedeniyle birden fazla yoldan "etkilenebilme", yani "duygulanabilme" kapasitesine sahiptir. İşte Spinoza'nın ahlakı: Tek boyutlu insandan dışarıya çıkış --Simmel'in modern kentlisinin hep maruz kaldığı "yalnızca tek bir türden uyaranlar bombardımanı"nı geriye itmek, inzivaya çekilmek ya da lanetlemek filan değil, uyaranlardan mümkün olduğunca fazla yollardan ve tarzlardan etkilenmeyi başarmak. Etik, iyi karşılaşmalar örgütlemektir."

Ulus Baker, Spinoza Hayatın Geometrisi
@ http://www.korotonomedya.net/kor/index.php?id=0,80,0,0,1,0

Cristopher Cichocki

2011-10-20T00:35:00.013+03:00

@http://cristophersea.com/

Old Mosque III (Eski Camii III) / Ahmet Elhan

2011-09-24T00:38:00.008+03:00

Eski Camii (the Old Mosque) is one of the last pieces of the series “Places” that Turkish artist Ahmet Elhan has been producing since 2007. Elhan created the works in this series by combining thousands of frames that he shot in public spaces such as religious locations, bars, underpasses and schools. He produces these frames by scanning the architectural structure from a fixed point inside, 360 from left to right and 180 degrees from top to bottom with constant angular shifts. In Elhan’s work, what matters is not the architectural elements of the selected location, but how the visual plasticity of a distinct architectural mass as a whole is used to transform the panoramic image into a different level where time and space are reconstructed with multiple perspective.

Eski Camii is a mosque built in the early 15th century in Edirne, Turkey, the capital of the Ottomans before the conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul). Unlike the previous works in “Places”, which were relatively more abstract in form, the artist chooses in this piece to keep the distinct architectural elements of the place like the calligraphy, chandelier and the prayers recognizable. The result is a new, monumental work that carries with it the essence of the “Old Mosque” appropriated from the public realm and reborn in the artist’s imagery in 2011.

Rita

2011-07-08T21:34:00.003+03:00

Rita Hayworth for Gilda
by Robert Coburn, 1946 @ http://www.npg.org.uk/glamour/1940s.htm

Zeki Müren / Ne Yaptım Kendimi Nasıl Aldattım

2011-04-30T22:24:00.013+03:00

http://fizy.com/#s/1aigcv

Outcry of a man who suffers after betraying his loved one.

Zeki Müren, without dispute the most enchanting male character of the Turkish Art Scene ever, leaves one breatheless in this early recording with the selflessness in his interpretation and transparency in his voice (you can almost see his pain passing through his soul and crystallizing in tha air). Naivity and freshness of his voice in this song however disappears in his later recordings; the beautiful desperation of youth leaves its place to a mostly overemphasized and slightly lost genuinity.

Murat Durusoy / Aşk

2011-04-18T00:54:00.015+03:00

Murat Durusoy'un fotograflarında ilk dikkatimizi çeken, imgelerin analog yöntemlerle deforme edilerek, ya da bilgisayar aracılığla yeni bir ortama taşınarak (remediation) yeniden üretilmiş olması. Bu yeniden üretim süreci, sanatçının kendi çektiği ya da görsel iletişim ortamlarında karşılaştığı imgeler arasından kendine içerik ve form açısından cazip gelenleri seçmesiyle başlıyor. Konu itibariyle hepimizin belki de varlığını çoğu zaman görsel ya da yazınsal temsilleriyle karşılaştığımızda tam olarak duyumsadığımız ve ancak sanat aracılığla içimizden geçip gitmesine izin verdiğimiz bir eksikliği gösteriyor. Sanatçının aşk olarak tanımladığı bu eksikliği yönelttiğimiz öznelere hissettiğimiz tutkunun yansımaları olarak okunan bu çalışmaların en önemli ortak özelliği, her birinin, imgenin transparanlığını bozan bir biçimsel muğlaklık taşıması ve buna rağmen içeriksel olarak bize hissettirdiği tanıdıklık duygusu.
@http://www.muratdurusoy.com/

Iceland / Michael Schlegel

2011-04-17T11:06:00.010+03:00

@http://www.fubiz.net/2011/04/14/iceland-landscapes/

On Chinese Acting / Brecht

2011-04-05T23:50:00.004+03:00

To look at himself is for the performer an artful and artistic act of selfestrangement. Any empathy on the spectator’s part is thereby prevented from becoming total, that is, from being a complete self-surrender. An admirable distance from the events portrayed is achieved. This is not to say that the spectator experiences no empathy whatsoever. He feels his way into the actor as into an
observer. In this manner an observing, watching attitude is cultivated.

(Bertold Brecht, On Chinese Acting, p.14 in Brecht Sourcebook)

He confines himself at the outset to merely quoting the character. (p.15)

Floransa Büyücüsü / Salman Rushdie

2011-03-31T22:53:00.003+03:00

"Dışadönük bir kişiliğe sahip olmayı haklı kılan tek gerekçe kudretli olmak mıdır?" diye düşünen yolcu kendi sorusuna cevap veremedi, fakat aynı hususta güzelliğin de mazeret kabul edileceğini umuyordu, çünkü letafeti şüphe götürmezdi ve görünüşünün kendine özgü bir gücü olduğunu biliyordu.

(s.18)

2011-02-25T00:34:00.002+02:00

"Sınır dışı mı ederlerdi yoksa kendi imkânlarımla mı giderdim bilmiyordum ama bir hicrete ihtiyacım olduğu kesindi."

emrah serbes

http://www.afilifilintalar.com/afili-parcalar-madde-76-kahvaltina-devam-edebilirsin

Autumn Sonata

2011-02-24T00:53:00.003+02:00

Lang & Baumann / spielfeld #5

2011-02-14T01:01:00.006+02:00

http://langbaumann.com/

Lang & Baumann / beautiful steps #3

2011-02-14T00:39:00.004+02:00

http://langbaumann.com/

Lang & Baumann / comfort #6

2011-02-14T00:33:00.005+02:00

http://langbaumann.com/

Ulus Baker / Kanaatlerden İmajlara: Duygular Sosyolojisine Doğru

2011-02-02T00:08:00.004+02:00

yaptığımız ve yapmayı sürdürdüğümüz işlere, düşündüklerimize, hissettiklerimize asla inanmadan ne kadar çok şey yaşadığımıza dair bir tartışmayı içeren doktora tezimi nihayet dün sunabildim; bazı dostlarım sayesinde kabul edildi, böylece teknik anlamda bazı düzeltmeler kalmakla birlikte daha bir aranızda olabilecek bir haldeyim...bir tez jürisi hikayesi anlatmayacağım elbette, ama tek söyleyebileceğim şeyi söylemeden edemeyeceğim: sevinç yerine bir "bakiye" duygusuyla karşı karşıya kaldım...beş altı yıldır uğraştığım ve sonunda benim için "çok özel" üç kişinin sayesinde tamamlanmış olduğuna kani olduğum bir çalışma sürecinden geriye sadece biraz hüzün kaldı... (s.13)

Ingrid

2011-01-25T03:06:00.003+02:00

Bowie

2011-01-25T02:33:00.003+02:00

more@http://davidbowie.tumblr.com

Sakir Gokcebag

2010-12-24T15:38:00.019+02:00

images @ http://www.sakirgokcebag.com/

"Ben Meleklere İnanıyorum / I Believe in Angels"

2010-12-21T17:37:00.014+02:00

Suzy Hug Levy
Ben Meleklere İnanıyorum / I Believe in Angels, 2010
Polietilen hortum, sicim, 184x153cm.

Ben Meleklere İnanıyorum

Elif Gül Tirben

Art&Dekor, Aralık 2010, Artam Global Art, sayı 9, s.80

Heykel, yerleştirme, performans, resim ve video gibi farklı disiplinlerde işler üreten sanatçı Suzy Hug Levy’nin Ben Meleklere İnanıyorum adlı işi Galeri Apel’de Ekim ayı içerisinde gerçekleşen ‘Çeşme’ adlı karma serginin bir parçası. Suyun birleştirdiği hayatlara, çeşmenin özellikle doğu toplumlarındaki değerine, kutsallığına; su ve çeşmeden doğan ritüellere, masallara göndermeler yapan işlerden oluşan sergideki iş, kolları gökyüzüne uzanan, havada asılı bir melek heykeli.

Galatasaray’da, Galeri Apel’in yer aldığı tarihi binanın iç avlusundaki nilüfer havuzunun üstüne yerleştirilen heykel, uzun, incecik plastik bir hortumun çemberler şeklinde kıvrılmasıyla oluşturulmuş. Sudaki yansıması ikinci bir melek imgesi yaratan heykelin yapıldığı ince hortumun iki ucu da suya daldırılmış. Bu açıdan iş, suyun devridaimini ve insan vücudundaki döngüselliğini ima ediyor. İnce, yarı şeffaf hortum aynı zamanda tıpta kullanılan serum tüplerini de çağrıştırıyor. Plastik malzemeyle şekillenerek ayağa kalkan suyun, serumdan insan vücuduna dağılan, damla damla, kalp ritminde kana karışan ilaç gibi heykelin içinde benzer bir yol izleyebileceği hissediliyor. Suyun vücuda dağıttığı şifa, adeta bir meleğin yardımı gibi. Ancak, eteğinin ucu hafifçe kalkmış bu melek, yakından şeffaf, uzaktan beyaz algılanan malzemenin çağrıştırdığı masumiyetin yanında kadınsı bir davetkârlık da taşıyor.

Güneşli havalarda ışığı yansıtarak parlayan, kapalı havalarda hüzünlü duran heykelin üstünde yağmur yağdığında biriken su damlaları, dizi dizi mücevherler gibi heykeli kuşatıyor. Hava koşullarına ve günün saatlerine göre değişen meleğin ruh hali bizim de ruh halimizi değiştiriyor. Heykel, 2011 Şubatına kadar Galeri Apel’de görülebilir.

Georges Rousse

2010-11-20T14:05:00.005+02:00

images @ butdoesitfloat

Felice Varini / Quatre disque dans le rectangle

2010-11-20T13:48:00.006+02:00

Quatre disque dans le rectangle, 2007
Musée des Beaux Arts, Arras, France
artist's web page http://www.varini.org
images @ http://www.orangebeautiful.com/blog/search.php?q=obsessive

Gunther Uecker

2010-11-20T12:59:00.006+02:00

images @ http://serurbano.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/gunther-uecker/

Serkan Özkaya ile Ani Bir Esinti Üzerine

2010-10-08T13:59:00.013+03:00

Elif Gül Tirben
Bu roportaj daha önce boltart.net'te yayınlanmıştır.

Güncel sanat pratiklerinin giderek artan bir kısmı, zamanın doğal hızı içinde algılayamadığımız anı dondurarak nesnenin hareketini ve bu hareketin estetiğini görünür kılıyor. Jeff Wall’un sinematografik fotoğrafları, Cai Guo-Qing’in Head On adlı yerleştirmesi ve Serkan Özkaya’nın Ani Bir Esinti’si bu işlerden bazıları.

Ani Bir Esinti yalınlığına rağmen izleyici üzerinde yarattığı etkiyle çocukluğumuzdan beri kurduğumuz zamanı dondurma hayalini gerçekleştiriyor ve anın günlük hayatta kayıp giden büyüsünü açığa çıkarıyor.

Serkan Özkaya ile Ani Bir Esinti’nin ortaya çıkışını ve sonrasını konuştuk.

Figür 1. Serkan Özkaya, A Sudden Gust of Wind, 2008, installation, Boots Contemporary Art Space, Missouri.

E.G.T: Ani Bir Esinti nasıl ortaya çıktı, biraz anlatır mısınız?

S.Ö: Yapmak istediğim ucuza, etkileyici ve yeni malzemelerden bir iş üretmekti. 10 TL’lik bir enstalasyon fikri vardı kafamda. Bu iş kağıt, Japon yapıştırıcısı ve ipten oluşuyor. A4 kağıtları 4TL, yapıştırıcı 1TL, ipi arkadaşımdan aldım. Kalan parayla simit de yiyebilirsin.

E.G.T: İşin, Jeff Wall'un Hokusai'nin Ani Bir Esinti adlı baskısından esinlenerek yaptığı aynı isimli light box çalışması ile ilgisi nedir? Jeff Wall'un fotoğrafını görünce mi aklınıza bu işi soyutlama fikri geldi?

S.Ö.: Hayır. Bir süredir birebir görme şansım olmayan işleri taklit ve mimik göndermeler olmadan yeniden üretiyordum. Aslında ismi Hokusai'den ödünç aldım. Bu kopyalama fikri, işi ilk sergilediğim Amerika, St.Louis'deki Boots Contemporary Art Space'tekilere cazip gelmiş. Onlar da bizim gibi merkezde değil çevrede (periphery) yaşadıkları için güncel işleri birebir görme şansına her zaman sahip değiller çünkü.

Figür 2. Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993, transparency in lightbox, 2500 x 3970 m, cinematographic photograph, Tate Modern

Figür 3. Katsushika Hokusai, 'Ejiri in Suruga Province' (Sunshū Ejiri), AD 1830-33, from the series ‘Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji' (Fugaku sanjū-rokkei), color woodblock print, Japan British Museum

E.G.T.: Bu işi yaparken anın dondurulmasıyla ilgili bir düşünceniz var mıydı?

S.Ö.: Anı dondurmak yerine birbirini takip eden anları düşünüyordum. İş, uçuşan tek bir kağıdın farklı anlardaki halini anlatıyor.

E.G.T: Barış Özçetin'in Ani Bir Esinti'nin Bilsar 2009'daki kurulumunu kaydettiği time-lapse videosunda da tekrara ve kaymalara dayalı bir müzik kullanılmış.

S.Ö.: John Adams'ın bir parçasıydı o sanırım. Minimalist bir müzik ve birbirini takip eden anlara dayalı. Steve Reich'taki gibi ezgiyi değil de küçük hatalarla birbirlerini takip eden tekrarları, kaymalar arasındaki farkı duyuyorsun. Hatalar yeni bir yapı oluşturmaya başlıyor. Ezginin üst üste konmasındaki tutarsızlıklar yeni bir yapı oluşturuyor.

Figür 4. Serkan Özkaya, Esinti, 2008.

E.G.T.: Peki ya Esinti... Ani Bir Esinti, Esinti'ye nasıl dönüştü?

S.Ö.: İkea'da bile satılabilecek, herkesin alabileceği bir iş yapmak istiyordum. Mekan, çoğaltılabilirlik ve elimizin altındaki nesneler üzerine düşünüyordum ve enstelasyonu tek bir kağıtta verme fikri doğdu. Aslında enstelasyon da daha önce masa üstünde uçuşan bir deste kağıt görünümünde bir heykeldi. Ancak bu heykelin kalıbını almak ve çoğaltmak mümkün olmadığından iş, önce gerçek kağıtlardan bir enstelasyona ve daha sonra ucu hafifçe kıvrılmış bir kağıt görünümünde metal bir heykele dönüştü ve Mudo Concept mağazalarında satılmaya başlandı.

E.G.T.: Esinti'nin önemi ne sizin için?

S.Ö.: Elit olana karşı ucuz ve sıradan olanı öne çıkarması. Hazır nesne ve somut ama soyuta da yakın. Bir kağıdın ucunu hafifçe kaldırıyorsun ve nesneye dönüşüyor. Yalnızca onu değil bütün bir negatif alanı düşündürüyor. Esinti sayesinde bütün bir odayı düşünüyorsun. En minimal müdahale ile en büyük etkiyi yaratıyorsun. Heykel de aslında negatif alanla ilgili bir şey.

Radikal gazetesini kopyalamam da benzer bir etki yaratıyor. Elle çizilen gazeteyi ilk görenlerin tepkisi “ne kadar çok ugraşılmış” oldu. Aslında yaptığım, o günkü sayının üstünden geçmekti. Bu da yaklaşık iki saatlik bir iş. Ama elle çizilen gazete, gazetenin yapım aşamasındaki emeği düşündüren bir negatif alan etkisi yaratıyor.

Zimoun

2010-10-07T13:11:00.002+03:00

25 woodworms, wood, microphone, sound system, 2009
Sound installation based on live sounds of woodworms.
Size: variable. Edition: unique.
video @http://zimoun.ch/works/2009/woodworms1/woodworms1_mov.html

Yüzünde Bir Yer

2010-09-04T12:47:00.002+03:00

Böyle mi iyileşeceksin? Yedeğinin yedeğinin yedeğiyle şeylere dokunarak yani. Hem aç, yoksul ve incitilmiş insanlara, hem de sokakları arşınlyan mutlu perilere mi bölüneceksin aynı anda? Büyük bir kalabalığın sıkış tepiş sığındığı gölgeni, oturduğu yerden bahçeyi seyreden kendinden başka kime iliştireceksin? Gözünü seveyim bırak bu çoğulluk çabasını, hiç sırası değil.

(Sema Kaygusuz, Yüzünde Bir Yer, s.65)

My My My / Loukia Alvanou

2010-08-16T18:34:00.005+03:00

Bu yazı, Nisan 2010'da Boltart.net'te yayınlanmıştır.

Loukia Alavanou’nun Rodeo Galeri’deki ilk kişisel sergisi My My My isimli üç kanallı bir video kolajdan oluşuyor. Alavanou bu çalışmasında Alice Harikalar Diyarında ve Pamuk Prenses gibi kadın kahramanlardan oluşan masalların, aslında hep hissettiğimiz ama farkında olmadığımız tekinsizliğini görünür kılmaya ve bu masalları kullanarak kadının hem sembolik düzendeki (dil), hem de ataerkil sistemdeki yerini sorgulamaya çalışıyor.

Üç ekranda birden saniyeler içinde değişen imgeler, ne olup bittiği konusunda algılarımızı zorlarken bizleri anlatımsal değil, görselliğe dayalı sezgisel bir yolculuğa çıkarıyor. Kadın kahramanların bilinçli olarak dışarıda bırakıldığı bu görsel evrende tekinsizlik, varlıksal statüsü canlı ile cansız, insan ile hayvan arasında sıkışmış karakterlerin yakın plan çekimlerinin birbiri ardına gösterilmesiyle yaratılıyor.

Film boyunca bu görüntülere, 1930’larda Hollywood’da analog olarak kaydedilmiş bir Pamuk Prenses sesi eşlik ediyor. Net olmayan, adeta uğuldayan bu ses “Keşke yaşayacak bir yerim olsaydı” lafını tekrarlıyor. Kahramanın evden, tanıdık olandan uzak olma hali, karşılaştığı karakterlerin muğlaklığıyla birleşiyor. Pamuk Prenses, “Eğer yaşayacak bir yerim olsaydı, böyle bir yerin nerede olabileceğini bilir miydin?” sorusuyla devam ediyor. Filmin ucubeleri tarafından cevapsız bırakılan bu soru, sanatçının The Shine, Seventh Seal, Freaks gibi filmlerden seçtiği grotesk sahneler ve gülme efektleri ile yanıtlanıyor ve tekinsizlik duygusu giderek pekişiyor.

Bu noktada filmin başlığı da açıklık kazanıyor. Evi olmayan, varoluşsal statüsü belirsiz varlıklar arasında sıkışmış kadın kahraman Alice’in üzerinden Alavanou, kadının ait olduğu yeri ve ona ait olanları sorguluyor. My/Benim iyelik sıfatının hiçbir ismi/cismi tamlamaması, ‘Babanın Adı’ etrafında şekillenen sembolik düzende ve ataerkil toplumda “gerçekten kadına ait bir yer/bir şey var mıdır?” sorusunu tekrar gündeme getiriyor. Çaresizce evini arayan Alice’in gerçekten bir evi var mıdır? Yoksa rüya sandığı şey aslında gerçek midir?

Alavanou’nun kadının hissettiği bu tekinsizliği görünür kılan çalışması çok katmanlı içeriğine rağmen anlamda bütünlüğü korumuş bir deneysel video orneği. Üç parçalı split-screen kullanımıyla triptik gibi de bakılabilecek bu iş aynı zamanda hızlı ama iyi düşünülmüş bir kurguya sahip.

Loukia Alavanou (d. Atina 1979) The Royal College of Arts, Londra’da MA derecesini fotoğraf dalında aldı. 2005 ve 2007 yıllarında Atina’da Deste Ödülü’nü kazandı. Eserleri, tank.tv, Beltsios Koleksiyonu ve Atina Milli Tiyatrosu’ndaki toplu sergilerde yer aldı. Sanatçı, Londra’da yaşıyor ve çalışıyor.

Contemporariness

2010-07-25T23:05:00.002+03:00

Contemporariness is, then, a singular relationship with one's own time, which adheres to it and at the same time, keeps a distance from it. More precisely, it is that relationship with time that adheres to it through a disjunction and an anachronism. Those who coincide too well with the epoch, those who are perfectly tied to it in every respect are not contemporaries, precisely because they do not manage to see it; they are not able to firmly hold their gaze on it.

(Agamben, "What is Contemporary", p.41 in What is an Apparatus?)

Insult

2010-07-25T21:19:00.002+03:00

An insult is effective precisely because it does not function as a constative utterance but rather as a proper noun; because it uses language in order to give a name in such a way that the named can not accept his name, and against which he cannot defend himself (as if someone were to insist on calling me Gastone knowing that my name is Giorgio). What is offensive in the insult is, in other words, a pure experience of language and not a reference to the world.

(Agamben, The Friend, in What is an Apparatus?, p.30)

Latife Tekin

2010-07-25T15:16:00.002+03:00

Kimi zaman, çok pis oldukları, kötü koktukları için böyle insanlara karşı sevecenliğini yitirir, yüreği katılaşırdı ama düşkünler, özellikle de deliler...Gizli bir güç tarafından, onlardan yana çekildiğini hissederdi yine de. Yaşamın ortasına el birliğiyle bir delik açmışlar, sanki onun da görmesi gereken bir şeye bakıyorlardı. Kendi imgesi, gözünde canlanıveren bu kışkırtıcı görüntüyle iç içe titreşirdi hep.

Latife Tekin, Ormanda Ölüm Yoktu, s. 15.

Economy/ Agamben

2010-07-09T03:02:00.003+03:00

Action (economy, but also politics) has no foundation in being: this is the schizophrenia that the theological doctrine of oikonomia left as its legacy toWestern culture.

(What is an Apparatus?, 10)

From Positivity to Apparatus/ Agamben

2010-07-09T02:33:00.004+03:00

If "positivjty" is the name that, according to Hyppolite, the young Hegel gives to the historical element loaded as it is with rules, rites, and institutions that are imposed on the individual by an external power, but that become, so to speak. internalized in the systems of beliefs and feelings then Foucault, by borrowing this term (later to become "apparatus"), takes a position with respect to a decisive problem, which is actually also his own problem : the rclation between individuals as living beings and the historical element. By "the historical element," I mean the set of institutions, of processes of subjectification and of rules in which power relations become concrete. Foucault's ultimate aim is not, then as in Hegel, the reconciliation of the two elements; it is not even to emphasize their conflict. For Foucault, what is at stake is rather the investigation of concrete modes in which the positivities (or the apparatuses) act within the relations, mechanisms, and "plays" of power.

(What is an Apparatus?, 6)

If we now try to examine the definition of "apparatus" that can be found in common French dictionaries, we see that they distinguish between three meanings of the term:

a. A strictly juridical sense: "Apparatus is the part of a judgment that contains the decision separate from the opinion." That is the section of a sentence that decide. or the enacting clause of a law.

b. A technological meaning: "The way in which the parts of a machine or of a mechanism and by extension the mechanism itself are arranged."

c. A military use: "The set of means arranged in conformity with a plan."

(What is an Apparatus?, 7)

Toby Borrows / Water

2010-07-03T17:09:00.003+03:00

Time/Space

2010-06-19T14:31:00.005+03:00

Ahmet Elhan, Sarayburnu, 2002

Ahmet Elhan, Maçka, 2002.

Ahmet Elhan, Unkapanı, 2002.

All from the series Time/Space available @ www.ahmetelhan.com

...and in the meantime "yollar/roads" by Nekropsi @ http://fizy.com/s/10am47#s/1aj9g5

'Çalkalayan’ Dünyanın Aydınlık Yüzleri/ Mürüvvet Türkyılmaz'ın "Kayıtsız Coğrafyaları" Üzerine

2010-06-11T20:14:00.013+03:00

Mürüvvet Türkyılmaz, Galeri Apel’deki ‘Kayıtsız Coğrafyalar’ adlı son kişisel sergisinde sınırların giderek belirsizleştiği, bireyin her ölçekte etkiye açık olduğu küresel kaos ortamında, kendi zihinsel haritasını ironik ve özgün görsel diliyle izleyiciye sunuyor.

Kucaklaşma, duvar üzeri yazı-çizim ve nesne yerleştirme.

Sergide ilk dikkati çeken, Türkyılmaz’ın desenlerinde ve duvar yerleştirmelerinde kullandığı yazı-çizimler. Desenlerde kullanıldığında sınırların yapaylığını ve muğlaklığını hatırlatan, biliç akışıyla aktarılan kelimelerden oluşan bu yazı-çizimler, duvardaki üç boyutlu haritalarda sınırları tanımlamak için değil, sanatçının mekanla ilişkilendirdiği bira kutusu, termometre, emzik gibi gündelik nesneleri birbirine bağlamak için kullanılmış.

Sergideki tek video çalışmasının objesi ise, ilk başlarda bir elin oynattığı, daha sonra elden bağımsız hareket etmeye başlayan ve Afrika ritimleri eşliğinde ‘çalkalamaya’ başlayan, oryantal dansçısı küçük plastik bir dünya. Bu dünya küresel kaosu, bu kaosun kontrol edilemezliğini ve birey üzerindeki etkisini anlatmak için kullanılan basit ve etkili bir araç. heTürkyılmaz’ın her sergisinde mutlaka kullandığı bu nesne, hem sanatçının bütün işlerini birbirine bağlayan, hem de bu serginin kavramsal yapısını birleştiren merkezi bir konumda.

Düşünce Korkusu, Enstelasyon

Sanatçının daha önce yurt dışında sergilenen, ancak Turkiye’de ilk defa görme şansı elde ettiğimiz ‘Düşünce Korkusu’ adlı yerleştirmesi ise galerinin bulunduğu binanın eski sahipleri tarafından depo olarak kullanılan bir odada yer alıyor. Galerinin alt katında, yukarıdan açılan bir bölmeden ışık alan bu loş oda, Türkyılmaz tarafından küçük gece lambalarının içlerine yerleştirilen siyah-beyaz sanatçı ve yazar portrelerinin ışığıyla aydınlatılmış. Çalışma, John Lennon, Orhan Pamuk, Pınar Selek, Hrant Dink gibi, çalkalayan dünyada denge sağlamak için tutunduğumuz, kendini barışa, ifade özgürlüğüne ve eşitliğe adamış, hayatları ‘düşünce korkusu’ nedeniyle son bulmuş ya da tehdit altında olan birçok kişiye saygı duruşu niteliğinde. Toplumsal bilinçaltının mekansal bir izdüşümü olarak da yorumlanabilecek bu oda ve onun karanlığını biraz olsun aydınlatan bu çalışma, serginin genel çerçevesi içinde ayrı bir öneme sahip.

Türkyılmaz’ın sergi kapsamındaki iki işi ise galeriden Tophane’ye inen güzergahta, biri bakkal diğeri otel olan iki mekana yerleştirilmiş. Bu yerleştirmeler, sergiyi galeri mekanının dışına, sokağa taşırken, seyircinin pasif konumundan kurtulup aktif olarak sıradan hayatın içine karışmasını öneriyor. Böylece, sanatçının zihinsel haritasını okuyarak başladığımız sergi, elimizde gerçek bir haritayla Tophane sokaklarında yapılan sürprizli bir gezintiyle son buluyor.

Aesthetics of Affect/Simon O'Sullivan

2010-06-11T01:10:00.003+03:00

This is art's function: to switch our intensive register, to reconnect us with the world. Art opens us up to the non-human universe that we are part of. Indeed, art might well have a representational function (after all, art objects, like everything else, can be read) but art also operates as a fissure in representation. And we, as spectators, as representational creatures, are involved in a dance with art, a dance in which - through careful manoeuvres - the molecular is opened up, the aesthetic is activated, and art does what is its chief modus operandi: it transforms, if only for a moment, our sense of our "selves" and our notion of our world.

Simon O' Sullivan, Aesthetics of Affect, 128

available@http://www.simonosullivan.net/articles/aesthetics-of-affect.pdf

Eyyam-ı Devran

2010-06-08T01:21:00.003+03:00

Malum ya! Eskiden bir söz vardır. "Ya olduğun gibi görün veyahut göründüğün gibi ol." Bugün kırk yaşındayım. Olduğum gibi görünmekteki metanet ve resanetime delil-i kati ve bürhan-ı celi sebatsızlıktaki sebatımdır. Bazen de ahval-i zamana, eyyam-ı devrana uymak için yani: göründüğüm gibi olmak hevesine her ne kadar temayül ettimse de o kisve-i izafiyeyi bir türlü taşıyamadım. Giran geldi. Esasen ne lüzumu var.

Neyzen Tevfik, Hiç, 4.

rasanet: dayanıklılık
delil-i kati: kesin delil
bürhan-i celi: açık delil
eyyam-ı devran: kaderin günleri, devir
temayyül: bir tarafa eğilmek, meyletmek
kisve-i izafiye: uygun kıyafet
giran: zor, ağır

Kay: She Goes Furher Than Anybody Else

2010-05-24T00:13:00.013+03:00

Diane Keaton in the Godfather

Like all other female characters in the movie, Kay never attempts to have power in the family. She could only protest. The only power she has is over her body which includes her baby.

However, despite her beautiful and innocent face, Kay is the one which acts most violently in the whole Godfather series by killing her own baby to prevent giving birth to a monster; a boy who would grow up to be like his father.

Nick Van Woert/ All Covered in Plastic

2010-05-12T23:52:00.007+03:00

Rotisserie, plaster bust and plastic

18 x 13 x 7 inches, 2009

artist page: http://work.fourteensquarefeet.com/
via: http://butdoesitfloat.com/

Hiroyuki Hamada

2010-05-12T23:09:00.005+03:00

No.59, enamel, oil, plaster, tar and wax,
20diameter x 36 inches, 2005-08.

No:46, enamel, oil, plaster, tar and wax,
44x23,5 inches, 2009.
artist page: http://www.hiroyukihamada.com/
via http://butdoesitfloat.com/

Kjell Varvin

2010-05-12T22:32:00.007+03:00

via http://butdoesitfloat.com/

The Fourth Plinth/ Rachel Whiteread

2010-05-09T21:34:00.006+03:00

Rachael Whiteread, The Monument
Photo: Kevin Matthews

"What more delight then to encounter "The Monument." This sculpture is a cheerfully deadpan, proportionally serious, optically inflected object cast in clear resin that stands the classic pedestal on its head — literally."
Kevin Matthews with Don Barker, Postcard from London, Architecture Week @ http://www.architectureweek.com/2001/1114/culture_2-1.html

The Fourth Plinth/ Mark Wallinger

2010-05-09T02:06:00.012+03:00

The Fourth Plinth

Today I've participated in a very interesting seminar on Public Art orginized by British Council and Garanti Platform. The Fourth Plinth Project presented by Julie Lomax [ Head of Visual Arts Organisation, Arts Council England, London] and Teresa Gleadowe [independent writer, editor and curator, London] was really exciting.
The Fourth Plinth was an empty plinth in the Trafalgar Square which has not been realized for a long time. It has recently been transformed into a public art project.

Mark Wallinger's Ecce Homo is one of the commisions that refunctionalized the plinth as a pedestal. The sculpture which represents Jesus is situated not in the middle of the pedestal but on the edge. Therefore it seems like the figure is watching over the crowd. He looks concerned. You can't see here but his hands are tied at the back. Absolutely stunning!

Mark Wallinder, Ecce Homo, 1999.

"Çok Eskiden Rastlaşacaktık"

2010-05-06T01:53:00.008+03:00

Halil and Sabiha from the 1968 Lütfi Akad movie "Vesikalı Yarim": a tragic and unforgettable encounter between a reliable family man and a B-Girl during a legendery time in Istanbul when people were still made of flesh and bone; when men had the guts and women the pride.

Menekşelendi Sular

2010-05-06T01:27:00.006+03:00

makam: nihavend
bestekar: saadettin kaynak
güftekar: malatyalı fahri

Gönül Yazar: http://fizy.com/#s/1ahxwa
Zeki Müren: http://fizy.com/#s/1aigcl
Safiye Ayla: http://fizy.com/#s/1aj12i

In the Cities of the Beyond.An Interview with Paul Virilio/John Armitage

2010-05-04T23:29:00.005+03:00

http://www.skor.nl/article-4567-en.html

OPEN is a magazine published by the centre. http://www.skor.nl/set-635-en.html

SKOR is a foundation for art in public space, situated in Amsterdam. http://www.skor.nl/set-actueel-nl.html?lang=en

Notes on Towards a Minor Literature/Jana Evans Braziel

2010-04-14T00:06:00.002+03:00

http:///www.umass.edu/complit/aclanet/janadele.htm

Tracy Hicks/ Visual Culture and Evolution

2010-04-03T00:26:00.005+03:00

saech http://www.tracyhicks.com and also watch http://www.tracyhicks.com/43209b.htm

Popper on New Ideas

2010-04-01T02:56:00.002+03:00

New ideas have a striking similarity to genetic mutations. Now, let us look for a moment at genetic mutations. Mutations are, it seems, brought about by quantum theoretical indeterminacy (including radiation effects). Accordingly, they are also probabilistic and not in themselves originally selected or adequate, but on them there subsequently operates natural selection which eliminates inappropriate mutations. Now we could conceive of a similar process with respect to new ideas and to free-will decisions, and similar things. "That is to say, a range of possibilities is brought about by a probabilistic and quantum mechanically characterized set of proposals, as it were - of possibilities brought forward by the brain. On these there then operates a kind of selective procedure which eliminates those proposals and those possibilities which are not acceptable to the mind.

Karl Popper and John Eccles, The Self and Its Brain, 1977.

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar/Ne İçindeyim Zamanın

2010-03-31T17:33:00.002+03:00

Ne içindeyim zamanın / Ne de büsbütün dışında;
Yekpare geniş bir anın / Parçalanmış akışında,

Bir garip rüya rengiyle / Uyuşmuş gibi her şekil,
Rüzgarda uçan tüy bile / Benim kadar hafif değil.

Başım sukutu öğüten / Uçsuz bucaksız değirmen;
İçim muradıma ermiş / Abasız, postsuz bir derviş;

Koku bende bir sarmaşık /Olmuş dünya sezmekteyim,
Mavi, masmavi bir ışık / Ortasında yüzmekteyim.

Mehmet Kaplan, Şiir Tahlilleri, 2. Cilt

Anish Kapoor

2010-03-30T02:24:00.006+03:00

Widow, 2004

Past Present Future, 2006

Is it my role as an artist to say something, to express, to be expressive? I think it's my role as an artist to bring to expression, it's not my role to be expressive. I've got nothing particular to say, I don't have any message to give anyone. But it is my role to bring to expression, let's say, to define means that allow phenomenological and other perceptions which one might use, one might work with, and then move towards a poetic existence.

Anish Kapoor

(Anish Kapoor and Homi K. Bhabha, 1998,hereafter, Conversations)

available @ Anish Kapoor :Making Emptiness by Homi Bhabha:
http://www.anishkapoor.com/writing/homibhabha.htm

images @http://www.anishkapoor.com

Muzeyyen Senar/Evlerinin Onu Mersin

2010-03-27T00:25:00.005+02:00

http://fizy.com/s/1agpv6

Here is an old song from the Aegean Region sang by Muzeyyen Senar, my personal favorite among the whole Turkish singers. This piece clearly shows the mastery she has achieved at an early age. In her later performances the color of her voice is more distinguishable though.

Ujin Lee

2010-03-16T03:52:00.003+02:00

Dust, 2009
@http://www.ujinlee.com/index2.html

Jenny Saville

2010-03-16T03:01:00.004+02:00

image and more @ http://www.colectiva.tv/wordpress/lang/en-us/jenny-saville/

Gönül Yazar/ Dök Zülfünü Meydana Gel

2010-02-27T00:18:00.009+02:00

Photo by Stüdyo Yaşar, Nişantaşı
available at Beyaz Gazete @ http://galeri.beyazgazete.com/gonul-yazar-fotograf-r9282.html

Here is the most joyful love song I have ever listened to in Classical Turkish Music. It is like a serenade, sang by Gönül Yazar; the dolly bird of the Turkish music.
Dök Zülfünü Meydana Gel: http://fizy.com/s/1ahunr

Alina Szapocznikow

2010-02-26T21:14:00.002+02:00

Image from Freeze Art Magazine @ http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/mouth_to_mouth/
for an article on the artist : http://www.artmargins.com/index.php/exhibitions/106-alina-szapocznikows-protean-body

Belle de Jour

2010-02-24T20:21:00.013+02:00

6-7 yaslarindayken, Ahmet adında bir bez bebeğim vardı. Sarı saçları keçe gibi, gözleri maviydi. Kolları bacakları hep yanlara doğru açık durur, hiçbir zaman tam olarak istedigim pozisyonu almazdı. Lacivert, gövdesine yapışık bir tulum giyiyordu... ayaklarını nedense hiç hatırlamıyorum.

Onu hiç yanımdan ayırmaz, onla yemek yer, televizyon izler, ona sarılarak uyurdum. Eğer süpermeni izlemek ya da komşunun kızı Bihter'le lego oynamak gibi dikkat gerektiren bir işe girişir de Ahmetim'i unutursam kendimi suçlu hissederdim. O benim hem arkadaşım, hem de çocuğumdu çünkü. İnsan çocuğunu hiç unutur mu? Hayır. Ama gün gelir, annelerin de okula gitmesi gerekir. Bu ayrılık zorunlu olduğu için annelerin suçu değildir. Anneler Ahmetleriyle akşamları ilgilenir...tabi ödev yapmaktan fırsatları kalırsa.

Okulun ilk yıllarında-tam olarak zamanını bilemiyorum-günlerden bir gün Ahmet'e çok kızdığımı hatta ona çok feci alındığımı hatırlıyorum. Bu duygu o kadar şiddetliydi ve ben onunla nasıl başedeceğimi o kadar bilemez haldeydim ki Ahmet'i iki hafta-belki de daha uzun bir süre-evin giriş kapısının sağındaki ayakkabılığın alt dolabına (mevsim yazdı ve oraya kimse bakmazdı) kapattım. Onu cezalandırmak istiyordum...çok kötü şeyler yapmıştı.

Ahmet'i o karanlık, kokulu deliğe tıkışdırışımın nedenini uzun yıllar hiç düşünmedim...ta ki gecen haftalarda bir gece internet sebebiyle girdiğim gereksiz münasebetler sonucu ilkokul aşkımı bilgisayar ekranında karşımda görünceye kadar. Karşımdaki yabancı yüz her ne kadar bana hiç bir şey ifade etmese de, beni fark etmeden okula ilk başladığım yıllara götürdü.

Ahmet ile ilgili esrarın o gece çözüleceği varmış. Önce Ahmet'in isminin aynı zamanda sınıfımdaki çok sevdiğim bir arkadaşımın da ismi olduğunu fark ettim. Acaba onu mu cezalandırmak istemiştim? Ama ona bu kadar eziyet çektirecek kadar güçlü bir şey hissetmiyordum. Sonra Ahmet'in en yakın arkadaşı olan, sabah akşam hiç aklımdan çıkmayan K.'nın (sevdiğim çocuk) da sarışın ve mavi gözlü olduğu aklıma geldi. Gerisi artık çok açıktı. K.'ya aşıktım. K. başkasına aşıktı. Sınıftaki 7 Elif'ten birine...

Ahmet'le bir daha hiç oynamadım. O benim çocuğum ya da arkadaşım değildi artık.
Barbie bebeklerle oynamaya başladım. Saçlarını kestim, kaşlarını boyadım. Annem kızdı. Anneannem onlara kazak örmeme, babaannem kıayafetler dikmeme yardım etti.

Bir daha hiç erkek bir bebeğim olmadı.

Doris Salcedo/Abyss

2010-02-11T02:19:00.009+02:00

images and more at Alexander and Bonin @http://www.alexanderandbonin.com/artists/salcedo/salcedo.html

for an article on this work and the artist's other works see Joshua Mack http://www.artreview.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1474022%3ABlogPost%3A806

Almost one year ago I was thinking how it would be possible to create a space in Istanbul that would function as a temple for people from all beliefs and nonbelievers. The idea came out of a very basic need: to have one place for contemplation. This place should not have any signs, symbol, anything that reminds one of any religion. One friend at that time (a landscape architect) told me about the Garden of Poets in Japan. I could not find many images about the place but I liked the idea that the temple could actually be a garden, or even an inner court; a hidden place in the middle of the city. I know Istanbul is full of forgotten spaces like that. But later, I realized that people in Istanbul already have such places of contemplation which are the boats that transport people from one side of the city to the other. And the Bosphorus with its magnitizing beauty just saves these people to be drawn in the chaos of their inner troubles, even for a moment.

Doris Salcedo's piece with its direct reference to death and claustrophobic pressure seems to have the power to fear the audience at first instance. This architectural "trap" which looks like Noah's ark made upside down might really be dreadful for the audience who is not willing to face the existential questions the work poses. However, it seems to me that Abyss may also be experienced as a place of contemplation where we leave our eartly concerns out and think about death as the inevitable signifier of life itself. Design of the structure that allows for sunlight to enter from the gallery windows proves that life is just there to enter any moment and we are free to leave whenever we want (to either side).

Christopher Wool / The Harder You Look...

2010-02-10T17:07:00.005+02:00

Untitled 2000
Enamel on aluminum, 108" X 72"

I Can't Stand Myself When You Touch Me,
1994 Enamel on aluminum, 108" X 72"

Official web site: http://wool735.com/cw/home/

Mario Giacomelli/ Questo Ricordo Lo Vorrei Raccontare/I Would Like to Tell This Memory

2010-02-01T19:25:00.010+02:00

For more and the famous "Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino Il Volto/ I don't have hands that caress my face" series, visit Mario Giacomelli official web site: http://www.mariogiacomelli.it/

Landscape as Architecture: Edward Burtynsky

2010-01-31T13:13:00.007+02:00

below is my personal favorite from the Prix Pictet 2009. for a bigger image see http://www.prixpictet.com/2009/view/537

Rock of Ages # 15, Active Section, E.L. Smith Quarry, Barre, Vermont
Series: Quarries, Chromogenic Colour Print,
image and board size: 121.9 x 152.4
1991, Vermont, USA

korku öfkeye, öfke nefrete, nefret ıstıraba, ıstırap da karanlık tarafa götürür mü?

2010-01-28T14:46:00.007+02:00

2-3 yaşlarındayken bir vapur gezisinde çok korkmuşum. hayal meyal hatırlıyorum. yağmurlu, karanlık bir gündü ve yer durmadan sallanıyordu. bizimkilerden biraz uzaklaşmıştım. onları bulmaya çalışıyordum ama koltuklar çok yüksekti ve insanları seçemiyordum. anneannem o vapur gezisinde ne kadar korktuğumu bana kurşun dökünce anlamış: suya dökülen kurşun vapur şeklini almıs.

Rainer Maria Rilke

2010-01-27T23:33:00.003+02:00

Tamamlanamaz hiçbirşey ben bakmadan,
durur tüm oluşumlar kıpırdamadan.
Olgundur artık bakışlarım ve bir gelin gibi
yaklaşır herkese arzu ettiği her nesne.

(Dua Saatleri Kitabı, syf. 25, çev. Yüksel Özoğuz)

A note on the Bullet Time scene in Matrix 1999

2010-01-26T20:12:00.015+02:00

photo by Entertainment Weekly, http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,702023,00.html
the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhxbYTMNMxo

The Bullet Time Effect is an advanced and strangely magnetizing technique of freezing the moment,which mixes the techniques of strobe flash photography, slow motion and time lapse. The most known scene displaying the technique is the famous bullet scene from the movie Matrix where several different techniques of capturing time is applied: the high speed photography used for shooting the motion of the bullets coming towards Neo; slow motion to make Neo’s fall more visible; and again high speed photography to unite the frames attained from cameras installed around the actor to create effect of camera revolving around Neo.

“In The Matrix, the camera path was pre-designed using computer-generated visualizations as a guide. Cameras were arranged, behind a green or blue screen, on a track and aligned through a laser targeting system, forming a complex curve through space. The cameras were then triggered at extremely close intervals, so the action continued to unfold, in extreme slow-motion, while the viewpoint moved. Additionally, the individual frames were scanned for computer processing. Using sophisticated interpolation software, extra frames could be inserted to slow down the action further and improve the fluidity of the movement (especially the frame rate of the images); frames could also be dropped to speed up the action.”[1]

What is so interesting about the Bullet Time Effect is that, it does not only slows down the motion to a perceptible degree, but also allows the audience to see the object and the environment in motion from different perspectives as a three dimensional reality. With the bullet time effect, the audience is made to revolve around the object in space, and this revolutionary technique may only be compared to walking around a sculpture in real life. Moreover, The Matrix Bullet Time is an important example how the visual perception is shaped through popular visual culture by different techniques of time and freezing the moment.

The aim of the Bullet Time scene in Matrix is to make the motion of different objects simultaneously visible from as many perspectives as possible. With the use of effects of time mentioned above, condensed motion hidden in a few seconds is revealed to the extent that there is nothing left for the mind to dream about. Flaxman states that “Deleuze distinguishes cinematographic movement from these other arts because the latter are essentially "immobile in themselves so that it is the mind that has to 'make' movement."[2] In cinema, on the other hand, the movement is there as it is in real life and therefore, the mind only follows the motion on the screen. The Bullet Time scene, however, in that sense goes beyond what Deleuze calls the movement-image; the audience does not have to imagine any motion mentally but even a single five-seconds-long scene is visually and mentally very demanding because of the complexity of notion although it is all in slow motion. While the over-exposure of motion creates a strange excitement due to the over-stimulation of visual perception, it is also exhausting, difficult to perceive and difficult to remember. In the Bullet time scene, the mystery of stillness in a single frame in photography is replaced by the pleasure of seeing the imperceptible as a moving image. The scene is a good example on how Hollywood cinema develops and incorporates strategies of stillness and slowness in itself to produce new forms of the movement-image.
[1] Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_Time

[2] Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2: The Time Image (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989), 156, quoted in Flaxman, Brain is the Screen, 18-19.
Elif Gül Tirben, from the thesis draft.

do not defeat, do not fight back, do not surrender/Uzupis Constitution

2010-01-15T16:09:00.002+02:00

Everyone has the right to live by the River Vilnelė, while the River Vilnelė has the right to flow by everyone.
Everyone has the right to hot water, heating in winter and a tiled roof.
Everyone has the right to die, but it is not a duty.
Everyone has the right to make mistakes.
Everyone has the right to individuality.
Everyone has the right to love.
Everyone has the right to be not loved, but not necessarily.
Everyone has the right not to be distinguished and famous.
Everyone has the right to be idle.
Everyone has the right to love and take care of a cat.
Everyone has the right to look after a dog till one or the other dies.
A dog has the right to be a dog.
A cat is not obliged to love its master, but it must help him in difficult times.
Everyone has the right to sometimes be unaware of his duties.
Everyone has the right to be in doubt, but this is not a duty.
Everyone has the right to be happy.
Everyone has the right to be unhappy.
Everyone has the right to be silent.
Everyone has the right to have faith.
No one has the right to violence.
Everyone has the right to realize his negligibility and magnificence.
Everyone has the right to encroach upon eternity.
Everyone has the right to understand.
Everyone has the right to understand nothing.
Everyone has the right to be of various nationalities.
Everyone has the right to celebrate or not to celebrate his birthday.
Everyone shall remember his name.
Everyone may share what he possesses.
No-one can share what he does not possess.
Everyone has the right to have brothers, sisters and parents.
Everyone is capable of independence.
Everyone is responsible for his freedom.
Everyone has the right to cry.
Everyone has the right to be misunderstood.
No-one has the right to make another person guilty.
Everyone has the right to be personal.
Everyone has the right to have no rights.
Everyone has the right to not be afraid.
Do not defeat.
Do not fight back.
Do not surrender.

Uzupis Constitution @http://chamberoftenthousandflowers.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/the-uzupis-constitution/

Blade Runner

2010-01-13T19:05:00.001+02:00

Diptychs of Uta Barth

2010-01-10T13:27:00.003+02:00

Untitled, (nw 1) ... from nowhere near, 1999

Untitled (aot 1) from ... and of time, 2000

Untitled (aot 2) from ... and of time, 2000

Images from Tanya Bolakdar Gallery

http://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com

Carla Klein and the Urban Landscapes 2

2010-01-03T01:25:00.006+02:00

http://www.carla-klein.com/

Carla Klein and the Urban Landscapes

2010-01-02T19:13:00.012+02:00

http://www.carla-klein.com/

Esther Stocker

2010-01-02T06:36:00.009+02:00

Untitled, 2006, wooden boards,wooden panels, photo by Rainer Iglar
http://www.estherstocker.net/

Nesrin Topkapı, The Most Amazing Turkish Belly Dancer Ever in an Old New Year's Night Show on TRT

2010-01-01T23:29:00.007+02:00

"Turkish Belly dancer,Nesrin Topkapi ,first belly dancer on Turkish Tv,new year 1979,time for Turkish who can see dancer once a year just on new year times!"

We could see ballet but we couldn't see belly dancers on TV, because it was low art, it wasn't even considered art, it was thought as female exhibitionism I suppose. This is one year before the military coup though. I really wonder what was on TV one year later.
To see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccdKukcGE08

On Deleuze's Analogy of Variation

2009-12-31T03:40:00.006+02:00

…to the extent that an idea replaces another, I never cease to pass from one degree of perfection to another, however miniscule the difference, and this kind of melodic line of continuous variation will define affect (affectus) in its correlation with ideas and at the same time in its difference in nature from ideas. We account for this difference in nature and this correlation. It's up to you to say whether it agrees with you or not. We have got an entirely more solid definition of affectus; affectus in Spinoza is variation (he is speaking through my mouth; he didn't say it this way because he died too young...), continuous variation of the force of existing, insofar as this variation is determined by the ideas one has.

Deleuze, Lecture Notes on Spinoza

Deleuze’s analogy quoted above, presumes a harmonically varied composition of sounds following each other. This is probably, as Baker argues, based on Spinoza’s determinist philosophy which assumes a pre-established divine harmony that reminds one of Baroque applications of “contrapuntal writing, instrumental singularity, formal integrity, dialectical variation and harmonic structure”[1] Ulus Baker, in his article “Bach and Spinoza” points out that Deleuze finishes his Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza with a chapter named “Is Spinoza Baroque?”, and argues that “in the era of Bach, music is a world of pure affects.”[2][3] And goes on to say that Third Part of Spinoza’s Ethica might be read as a composition of affects.

However, with respect to the analogy of sound suggested by Deleuze, whether the sounds in the system follow each other harmonically is a matter of question. What is already determined is the variety of affection that a human being can experience; sadness and joy if Spinoza’s definition is followed, which corresponds to the limits of the human perception of sound which is almost between 20Hz to 200Khz. Since the external stimuli that effects us through affection ideas are mostly random, what we experience in our everyday lives within the limits of joy and sadness are not necessarily harmonical, on the contrary, they are more like continuous free flow of sound frequencies, rather than a Baroque piece.

However, we also have to keep in mind that mostly in our daily lives we are not totally conscious of or pay attention to this internal flow of power of existence just like we do not pay attention to the sounds we hear. How am I feeling at the moment or to which direction my feelings are changing to, are questions that would necessitate concentration to the psyche which would prevent one from concentrating on the routines and requirements of everyday life. However, there are times when we are alerted due to the strong impact that some experiences in variation. We mark those moments as privileged moments consciously or unconsciously and record them in our memory for a later recall.

Thus, the degree and character of affection that occurs in us when we encounter an image or an art work depicting a moment is very much related to our past experiences and set of mind at the time of encounter. When we are effected from an artwork an ordinary instant suddenly becomes a “privileged instant”; according to the strength of the "variation" it creates in us. The peak of the variation, either as a decrease or increase in our "power of existence" might be the reason why we want to look at the image which depicts a specific moment.

[1] Later, in the same article Baker argues that history of “Western Philosopy” and “Western music” can be read as a history of delays and even detentions. He suggests that Spinoza with its determinism delayed the “irrational” three hundred years until Nietzsche’s discovery of it as “life”. Similarly, Western music he argues delayed the dissonance until Schoenberg and had to discover the sound.
[2] http://www.korotonomedya.net/kor/index.php?id=8,112,0,0,1,0
[3] Baker states that “what would happen if Spinoza and Bach have met” was a question already asked before him by the Dutch philosopher Rabbi de Cardozo.

Tony Smith with "Cigarette"/ A beautiful photo of the artist with his work by Hans Namuth

2009-12-31T03:05:00.004+02:00

Tony Smith with "Cigarette", 1979

Zeynep Kamil

2009-12-23T23:24:00.005+02:00

Yesterday, I walked by the Child Emergeny enterence of Zeynep Kamil hospital where I stayed for 15 days when I was 5 years old for meningitis treatment. I was actually out from a friend's house to look for a fine butcher where I can find some good quality minced meat when I bumped into this sign showing where the Child Department of the hospital was. I followed the direction down the slope, passed two amazing historical buildings (with beautiful domes and decoration) hidden between the adjascent pink and ugly modern structures and the entrance was just there. It was part of those dark pink buildings. I tried to remember whether it was pink back then and decided that it might have actually been light blue. Maybe inside the hospital was blue, I can't really remember.
Anyway, it was such a strange feeling being in front of that door. All I remember about the day I was brought there was that I was laying on my uncle's lap almost uncouncious in the car on the way from Izmit to the hospital (or I was on my father's lap and my uncle was driving) and they put me on a stretcher when I got off and took me in for tests and stuff. The last thing I remember was I was too scared because mom was not coming with me.
The following days, I remember being in this very cold, big and empty room (probably in light blue color) and a nurse shaving part of my head to open a space for serum injection. My hair was very precious for me and I was very upset about that, I remember that for sure.
But what I dominantly felt about the hospital was not sadness at all. I remembered how the doctors were so nice and caring and what I deeply feelt was gratitute to these people for curing me. It is such a pitty that I don't remember anything at all about themexcept for their white coats.
I better write a thank you letter to the hospital very soon.

Olgu Ülkenciler/Girlish

2009-12-20T01:16:00.004+02:00

Untitled, oil on canvas, 2007
I love Olgu's paintings. This is the one she very generously decided to give me as a present.
I am so happy!!!
Below is the catalogue text I wrote for her last exhibition "Girlish":

As if Always Happy

Pretend! The holy book of the lost generation starts with this order and continues; as if you do not feel, as if nothing bothers you, as if always happy.

At the beginning, we followed the order with belief but in time, we have broken down like a pressed cola can. All we did while falling apart was to express our adolescent anger that we could not yet overcome. We did not aim to change anything, we just wanted to resist. Since this was the case, our priority as the adult candidates of the lost generation has been trying to close the gap between the external world and ourselves that the necessity of pretending created. Accordingly, we have started questioning who we are as individuals and where we stand in the social, in an era in which differentiations between physical/mental, individual/social, inside/outside lost their validity theoretically but maintained their sharpness in daily life.

Olgu Ülkenciler who has lived her childhood in the 90s, is one of the members of the lost generation. In her paintings, she has been questioning the gender issues, by analyzing spatially the phases of sexual awareness and individualization. Visually, the artist, who has been affected by the simple but powerful graphical expression of the earlier digital aesthetic, succeeds drawing the attention of the audience by using sexual images in a simple but impressive way and at the same time by using a childlike language in her representations, creates a humorous atmosphere.

Despite the fact that the works in Ulkenciler’s second solo exhibition House Girl leave a pornographic impression on the audience by the use of disembodied sexual organs that have interlaced each other, when carefully analyzed one realizes that they make visible a complex spatial system that have been characterized by gender codes. In this system, the house girl travels between her house (decorated by lacework and releases blood or dark smokes through its door and chimney) and the external world. In the paintings, while the house represents a place for sexual privacy and isolation, the world outside the house is the space where sexuality is shared and at the same time repressed. Body fluids flowing from one place to the other and the playboy bunny which runs away from the house and comes back again combine these two separate places and seem like saying ‘even though space is fragmented, body and mind will always go beyond the boundaries’. Therefore, the questions ‘where are we?’, ‘where is the house?’ ‘where is sexuality?’ are wrong to ask when it comes to Ulkenciler’s paintings. The actual question is the relationship modals that we create in our minds and spatial practices we experience in our daily lives or where the runaway bunny goes or what it does when it is away.

Ulkenciler who is a member of a generation which perceives and criticizes the social through personal experiences, shows in her paintings that she is an individual who is questioning not because she is lost, but because she wants to confront. In this context, her paintings remind the question that the “lost” generation should direct to themselves and to the ones before them: is the one who is searching always and only ‘lost’?

Tara Donovan

2009-12-08T20:11:00.002+02:00

Tara Donovan, Untitled (Styrofoam Cups), 2008,
Styrofoam cups, hot glue, dimensions variable. A
rtwork © Tara Donovan, Courtesy of the Artist and PaceWildenstein.
Photo by Dennis Cowley.

for the curatorial statement of the artist's ehibition at
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
http://www.mcasd.org/exhibitions/exhibition.php?EID=194&Type=current
and further images at ace gallery
http://www.acegallery.net/past/d-f/donovantara/taradonovan.htm

Franz K syndrome

2009-12-04T22:48:00.009+02:00

need some stillness on a friday night...
...
I was telling a friend today how in the media and even in actual life now we were expected to make such strange connections between the bodies whose level of reality are totally different.
You turn on the Tv and there is this add saying that with a coca cola lid, you can buy 50 extra credits for your cell phone. If you can manage to get your credits, then you get a message on your cell phone saying that you can shop from brand x with a 20 percent discount. Then you go to the shop and the guy behind the desk tells you to send a message to xxxx to activate your account in their system, so you can buy the bloody jumber with the discount. You buy the jumber and you get a receit and on the receit it says, if you dial xxxx you get an extra credit.

Leave aside promotion of consumerism, trying to make sense out of all these connections and shifts between virtual and actual reality is exhausting and a terrible waste of time and energy!!!

Ok, looking at the TV for even one day was enough to remind me how I hate being this passive observer of all that paralyzing shit-production.

Be Still My Beating Heart /Sting

2009-12-02T22:05:00.006+02:00

This song is for all people who consider doing a Phd...
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/search/songs/?query=sting

Be still my beating heart
It would be better to be cool
It's not time to be open just yet
A lesson once learned is so hard to forget
Be still my beating heart
Or I'll be taken for a fool
It's not healthy to run at this pace
The blood runs so red to my face
I've been to every single book I know
To soothe the thoughts that plague me so

I sink like a stone that's been thrown in the ocean
My logic has drowned in a sea of emotion
Stop before you start
Be still my beating heart

Restore my broken dreams
Shattered like a falling glass
I'm not ready to be broken just yet
A lesson once learned is so hard to forget

Be still my beating heart
You must learn to stand your ground
It's not healthy to run at this pace
The blood runs so red to my face
I've been to every single book I know
To soothe the thoughts that plague me so

Stop before you start
Be still my beating heart
Never to be wrong
Never to make promises that break
It's like singing in the wind
Or writing on the surface of a lake
And I wriggle like a fish caught on dry land
And I struggle to avoid any help at hand
I sink like a stone that's been thrown in the ocean
My logic has drowned in a sea of emotion

Stop before you start
Be still my beating heart

"Bach and Spinoza" by Ulus Baker

2009-11-30T12:32:00.006+02:00

http://www.korotonomedya.net/kor/index.php?id=8,112,0,0,1,0

I wish this absolutely stimulating article was also found in Engish.

Baker's articles mixes with my body in a manner by which I am modified so desirably that I, at some instants even stop breathing cos of joy and perplexity. This is extacy, it can not be anything else :)))

Almost Blue by Elvis Costello

2009-11-26T03:00:00.000+02:00

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/search/?query=elvis%20costello%20almost%20blue

Almost blue
Almost doing things we used to do
There's a girl here and she's almost you
Almost all things that your eyes once promised
I see in hers too
Now your eyes are red from crying

Almost blue
Flirting with this disaster became me
It named my as the fool who only aimed to be

Almost blue
It's almost touching it will almost do
There's a part of me that's always true...always
Not all good things come to an end, now it's only a choosen few
I've seen such an unhappy couple

Lyrics: Mcmanus, Declan

don't like cheese?

2009-11-25T21:54:00.004+02:00

The Danish Blue

"I don't like cheese." What does it mean "I don't like cheese"? That means that it mixes with my body in a manner by which I am modified disagreeably, it cannot mean anything else.

Gilles Deleuze, Transcripts of the Lecture on Spinoza's Concept of Affection

Andy Ballatti says

Like other fermented foods (yogurt, kefir, and tempeh), aged blue cheeses — including roquefort and gorgonzola — contain health-promoting live and active cultures (AKA “bacteria”) commonly known as probiotics.

Blue cheeses contain significant amounts of Penicillium bacteria. In the case of roquefort cheese, or instance, the specific bacteria is Penicillium roqueforti.

Research on the specific health benefits of these strands is limited (largely because these cheeses are not consumed in the same quantities as yogurt). However, it has been established that these are indeed probiotics that survive the digestive process (meaning they have some effect).

As with anything else, probiotic foods are only effective if they are eaten on a consistent basis.

Remember, too, that probiotics appear to work best in diets that are also high in prebiotics (leafy greens, whole grains, beans, and legumes are the best sources).

More evidence that eating real, whole, unprocessed foods is the best way to go.

Andy Bellatti @ http://smallbites.andybellatti.com/?p=3460

Gökçen Cabadan; The question again rises: "What is a Perfect Moment?

2009-11-25T09:38:00.002+02:00

Untitled, oil on canvas, 50x50cm, 2007

Dream of a Bastard, oil on canvas, ø 120cm, 2009

Gokcen Cabadan's last solo exhibition can be visited at Galeri Non
November 25-December 30,2009
http://galerinon.com/

"Ayrıcalıklı Anlar"/ Ulus Baker@körotonomedia

2009-11-25T09:34:00.000+02:00

http://korotonomedya.net/kor/index.php?id=9,109,0,0,1,0

David Hockney

2009-11-25T09:14:00.001+02:00

A Bigger Splash, 1967acrylic on canvas, 96x96 in.

Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures)

1972acrylic on canvas, 84x120 in.

@http://www.hockneypictures.com/works.php

He is poetic but...:An interview on Luc Tuymans

2009-11-25T08:40:00.000+02:00

for the interview see http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue1/article3.htm

A life changing experience: Reading Deleuze's Lecture Transcripts on Spinoza's Concept of Affect

2009-11-25T07:45:00.000+02:00

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14483585/Transcript-of-Deleuzes-Lecture-on-Spinozas-Concept-of-Affect

Turkce'ye ceviren Ulus Baker

http://mutlaktoz.wordpress.com/spinoza-2/

Tracy Emin

2009-11-11T02:40:00.000+02:00

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/columnists/tracey-emin/tracey-emin-i-want-to-be-suspended-in-time-donrsquot-let-it-move-too-fast-1366535.html

2009-10-27T00:19:00.000+02:00

"We know nothing about a body until we know what it can do."

Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 257

A creature...

2009-10-14T05:48:00.000+03:00

A creature must cope appropriately and in a timely fashion with changes in its dynamic environment.
A creature should be robust with respect to its environment. . . .
A creature should be able to maintain multiple goals
A creature should do something in the world; it should have some purpose in being.
(Brooks 1991, p.143)

Woody Allen

2009-10-14T05:39:00.000+03:00

Ninety percent of life is just being there.

speed pollution by virilio

2009-10-13T17:10:00.001+03:00

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.05/virilio.html?pg=2&topic=&topic_set=

Miroslaw Balka

2009-10-08T02:09:00.000+03:00

67x60x33

"After seeing the sadness inscribed in the works maybe some spectators can see that joy can also be found in those moments of life that one lives to the full."

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unilevermiroslawbalka/default.shtm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/jan/29/miroslaw-balka-tate-turbine-hall
http://www.whitecube.com/artists/balka/i/
http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/miroslaw_balka

2009-09-28T15:10:00.000+03:00

Gib mir noch eine Weile Zeit / Ich will die Dinge lieben wie keiner noch
Rainer Maria Rilke

Give me a little more time / I will love things like no other has yet

(Bana biraz daha zaman ver / Şeyleri kimsenin sevmediği gibi seveceğim trans. Fatih Özgüven)

in front of myself...

2009-09-25T15:50:00.000+03:00

'It seems to me that I am not in front of my house, but in front of myself, in front of myself sleeping, and that I at the same time have the joj of sleeping profoundly and of guarding over myself as sentry.'

Franz Kafka, 'The Burrow' in Metamorphosis and Other Stories

from Kundera's Slowness 2

2009-03-30T23:21:00.000+03:00

"...the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting. From that equation we can deduce various corollaries, for instance this one: our period is given over to the demon of speed, and that is the reason it so easily forgets its own self. Now I would reverse that statement and say: our period is obsessed by the desire to forget, and it is to fulfill that desire that it gives over to the demon of speed; it picks up the pace to show us that it no longer wishes to be remembered; that it is tired of itself; sick of itself; that it wants to blow out the tiny trembling flame of memory." (135)

from Kundera's Slowness

2009-03-30T22:19:00.000+03:00

" There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting. Consider this utterly commonplace situation: a man is walking down the street. At a certain moment, he tries to recall something, but the recollection escapes him. Automatically he slows down. Meanwhile, a person who wants to forget a disagreeable incident he has just lived through starts unconsciously to speed up his pace, as if he were trying to distance himself from a thing still too close to him in time.

In existential mathematics, that experience takes the form of two basic equations: the degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting." (Kundera, 1995, 39)

Cornelia Parker

2009-03-29T18:27:00.000+03:00

Heart of Darkness, 2004, Charcoal from a Florida Wildfire
(planned forest burn that got out of control) dimensions variable

Links for further information
http://www.tate.org.uk/colddarkmatter/installation.htm
http://www.artseensoho.com/Art/DEITCH/parker98/parker1.html
http://www.damelioterras.com/artist.html?id=23#

Bullet Time Effect

2009-03-29T00:25:00.000+02:00

Matrix Reloaded

For Bullet Time see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_time

Peter Fischli and Davis Weiss / Der Lauf Der Dinge

2009-03-28T23:46:00.000+02:00

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3sw8k_der-lauf-der-dinge_creation

Heide Fasnacht

2009-03-28T23:32:00.000+02:00

Exploding Plane, 2000

Graphite Acrylic over Neoprene Dimensions Variable

(approx 20' sq)