Press

2016 Elvan Tekcan / A Conversation with Secil Erel

August 13, 2016 Seçil Erel’s artist book / IMOGA

ET: In this interview, I don’t find it very meaningful to discuss topics such as the plastic and technical characteristics and series of your works, because we want this to be a discussion beyond the confines of time. Fort this reason, I think it would be more meaningful to have a discussion about your perspective on art. Since this won’t be a periodic piece, I’d like us to have a timeless discussion.

When we consider art, we are actually talking about something which is a subjective act. In your interview with Emre Zeytinoglu at Galeri Merkur, there was an expression used; I liked that opening very much, it says, what really is an artist concerned about, first of all, living, artists are those who have a ‘thing’ about living. Their outlook on life is different than others, thus they can produce a work of art from this material. We can also look at art this way; perhaps it is a form of birth, insofar as its meaning to me. With labor pains, with the process, in fact even with the processes of becoming pregnant and the entire term of pregnancy and birth. Perhaps for this reason, this will be very personal, but that’s why I can’t associate the word, ‘creation’ with art, in reality I see the process of producing art as a pure birthing process. Indeed there are things beyond the typical process of physical fertility here, and perhaps that is at the metaphysical dimension and is deeper. There is a motivation of wanting to bring something tangible into this world at the outset. That is the reason why it is highly subjective.

When we say Secil Erel, Secil gives birth to something which belongs to Secil Erel and is representative of herself. Therefore, I don’t know if you’ll agree, for me a work of art is somewhat the metaphor of a mirror. Because each work of art is a mirror that the artist holds up from their own physical place, to the world. When we say mirror, it has two directions. One is the side which the artist holds to themselves internally and externally, and this is an angle belonging to their own subjective perspective, outlook, experience and lifestyle. If we consider the universe as in nite angles and refractions, and I find it appropriate to initiate the conversation from this point because, in your production of art, you have a concern with regard to the surface in this respect, it is for that reason that I wanted to use this metaphor to create a space and perception. The other side of this is the viewer. It occupied my mind because it caught my attention in that discussion as well. The artist is actually the one who holds the mirror at different angles and guides the viewer to “see” from some respects, from where they are holding it, the artist has such a concern as to instrumentals that angle which catches the artist’s own perspective. Because the viewer is an individual who is similarly fertile, and they experience their own process at the moment they encounter the piece.

And in my mind, when we say Secil Erel, whether it’s the discussions that we’ve had up until now, the continuity in our observation of your art, or your interviews which I’ve heard, two fundamental components emerge. I’d like to start from there, that is, I’d like you to start your comments from that point.

In that conversation, one sentence was very striking to me, you say, “all living things create a space for themselves and in that space, establish a life for themselves.” This is actually something which overlaps with what we’ve touched upon to this point. We find the two fundamental components with regard to your art here.One is space, the other is time. These are your areas of interaction, or angles. So let’s start from there. You actually come before the observer by extracting and exposing these from within life, and present them with an awareness and point of view. Let’s start from the issues of space, time and establishing an area from within a position in life. For example, space makes you very enthusiastic, because birth, entering into an area of existence, is somewhat similar. If you don’t feel love and if something doesn’t excite you, you can’t produce anything.

SE: Really, fundamentally, in the beginning the issue of time was always interesting to me. Although space by definition may appear to be a place representing a particular area, when it enters into a relationship with time, it gains a completely different dimension. Further, it transforms into something more abstract with the ability to represent history, memory, existence, everyone’s perception. It goes beyond four walls or areas with distinct borders. On one hand, it is something such that, as you mentioned, everyone establishes their own area, and by trying to maintain an existence within time and space through what they know and what they’ve experienced, as experiencing is very important, they live their time within those areas.

For me, from the outset, painting an image of things didn’t always catch my interest. During the period before I entered school, my perception was in this manner. Being able to make images of things is an incredibly beautiful thing; having learned, experienced, knowing and being able to do this in my academic education is wonderful but insufficient insofar as what excites me. Because beyond an image of things, the cause, effect, reason for its existence, its position in its time, its situation was more attractive to me. Everyone has a different way of perceiving, and this is mine; what is behind that which is visible is interesting to me.

So among all of these things which attract my attention, my interest in time became more distinct along the way, immediately followed by space, of course. Previously, while space appeared as architectural details in my works, in reality the work where I gave complete thought to space and placed it more in the centre was my piece, “ilk ev/ The initial home”. With my becoming pregnant and the formation of a space within my body, the issue of space attracted my attention from a different angle. This was the time when I experienced a breaking point in the relationship between time and space. In the in nite experience of time for each thing that exists, there is a time and space occupied by each living thing. In a sort of emptiness which is the space of the initial home, in which time becomes abstract, my paper works were designed, to include from top to the floor of the exhibition space covered in paper, in a way representative of the initial home.

An additional interesting point is this: as an artist and as a person, there are issues and thoughts which are of interest to you, there are technical things you prefer to use in production, and together with all of these, your experiences within time are actually your source of inspiration. For example, one of these is a period of time that I mentioned above; and after that the period of moving, changing the place I live and even the voyages I make. The process that started with my own choice took on a complicated state, and the bond I established went through an emotional congestion when leaving the space I used as a workshop for a long period of time. Because for a while, I never really left that space. I was so buried within my own area that in one sense, my life was clutched within that space. When I left it, my mind was still there. The relationship of belonging which I established with that space ultimately began to form a relationship with my works. And until that day I produced a series of works stemming from my own areas with the plans of the spaces I had used as workshops and a home. In this context, your work becomes whatever you experience. I think that knowing concepts, content and notions in art and being able to transform them is very important, but not sufficient. But when combined with experiences, it allows you to establish a more genuine relationship.

In the recent past, for the works I exhibited in my successive exhibitions in Istanbul and Ankara, I used the experiences I got from the places I visited just before the period of preparing for these exhibitions. Things such as the places I visited last year, the spaces, the people I met there, the lives I encountered, going outside of my stable lifestyle here, and the opportunity to observe from many different angles, that while the world is very big, it is also very small, and the problems everyone has with existing within their own areas. It is such that the works I’ve produced, had I not gone to many of the places I went to last year, had I not experienced the residency (guest artist program) process, started a workshop from scratch under very different conditions than the ones I have here, and tried to think and produce differently, would have quite likely been very different last year. Perhaps more closed or more open, I don’t know, but not this.

In addition, another thing which attracts my attention is this; we have in nite choices and we put ourselves into templates within these in nite choices. For example, for an artist, I have a life that’s not so bad, in fact quite comfortable. My home is ve minutes from my workshop, I don’t have much trouble accessing materials or anything else, etc... This is great but getting outside of this, distancing myself from these circumstances and the idea of creating an area in different places as an individual and as an artist excites and nurtures me very much. Creating and destructing...I think that what compels me to construct, is first to destruct.

When we look from the very beginning at the process of my entire works, they run quite parallel with one another. Indeed there are changes and developments but they’re not entirely disparate from each other. Despite what I mentioned, they are not, even when bringing two seemingly dissimilar things together, I continued by being nurtured from beyond this comfort zone but still by making them adapt to it.

ET: With regard to what you’ve said here, artists go through a lot of pain in establishing a language which is their own. In that scattering from here to there to everywhere, as you mentioned earlier, they seek that sincerity. Because when there is sincerity, a different bond occurs with the viewer. When we talk about subjectivity with regard to a product of art, we are actually trying to say this. And this is the perception that those who have written about you until now have always underscored. Let’s say that this is your luck and let’s hope that in time, this doesn’t turn into a misfortune, and on the other hand, this is a challenging factor which requires you to exert a lot of effort. Becoming identical, along with creating apprehension of appearing too similar, is perhaps not something that is reason for significant concern. Because our lives seem long to us in terms of time, while we are really only a point in the stream of all time, so in that sense it is my own opinion that this isn’t a concern. But from the perspective of the interaction coming from our environment, it may cause concern for you, and that’s why I wanted to offer that opinion. It’s an issue of being scattered based on your having found that original artistic production language at a very early stage and uniting with that unique subjective identity. But of course each moment is another experience in life, and therefore certainly this component brings its own diversity into the process.

I’d like to emphasise a point from the discussion. As you just mentioned, from the outset, you were never concerned with making paintings of things. We’ve been in touch with you for a long period of time, and if there is a Secil Erel which you show us, there is a mental dimension both in the paintings and in the lifestyle of this Secil Erel, and there is the intuitive, internal dimension. I observe that both in your process and in every area of your life, these two ow quite contemporaneously and without connecting with one another, this is very sign cant. I think that this was important in the emergence of your language so early on. Because with artists, in general there is always a connect with the mental, that is, the more rational side.

Your rationale is very strong and established, and along with having reached a balance, your intuitive side is very open as well. Had you been an engineer, you would have thought that now it’s necessary for you to and something else to build, you would have been an engineer who questioned, what else do people need. You’re not someone who can take on an endeavour continuously and in a manner which repeats itself. On the other hand, from its rational and intuitive perspective, art is actually an area which demands a structure such as this, whereas although the perception in the minds of many people is that art as an illusion is in a purely intuitive area, there is the reality that the rational side is quite necessary and in this context as you said, everything we learn, all of the area specific education and discipline that we are exposed to is a very necessary stylistic infrastructure. Because this rational accumulation and active system creates a sifting mechanism in which intuition is altered for the artist’s process. Each piece of information that comes as intuition, all of the perceptions, all of the accumulations find a shape by being sifted. Ultimately art, especially visual art, is an in nite ow which you can catch in a dimensional area on the surface and transport to two, at most three dimensions, and alter into a form. It is very important for the individual to have a rational and disciplined accumulation for this free and original ow to go through a subjective filter and find shape.

Without getting off the subject, the point to which I’d like to return is this; there is an issue of mathematics which comes to the fore in your interviews as well. In this sense, your mental codes are extremely analytical. But when we say mathematics we are actually referring to a very abstract area. Your issue with not making paintings of things is attributable to your very abstract intellectual manner. This is the manner of your intellect and process, this is your language. If we were to analyse Secil Erel as a machine and if we were able to take a visual reading of your intellect, it is highly likely that an abstract image would emerge. That’s why you’ve endeavoured to be able to express yourself with an abstract narrative language in the two dimensional surface area. From that perspective at this stage, I’d like to propose that we broach the issue of maps. Your concern with space some how found life in the map. The map is actually a vehicle for you.

SE: I don’t want to be redundant with what you’ve said, but yes, everything starts with mathematics. Since my childhood, everything has actually always come from there, nothing happens in an instant. From the very beginning, as you said, the reason for my abstract paintings or why the abstract dimension of thought attracts my attention, is in fact, mathematics. And math ultimately, is actually a systematic structure for the human mind to de ne and resolve certain things. It encompasses uncertainties as well, and it is a structure open to change; a solution and language of sorts. Really everything we exist within today, everything we experience which is de ned, is based on the area of a mathematical system and despite the fact that we acknowledge it as a genuine realism, when we go to its depths, it is in nite and abstract. Ultimately it is an established structure and its reality is open to question.

These things which I mention have been creating the foundation of my works from the very beginning. It overlaps directly with my manner of thinking and I’m fortunate that by discovering this early on and trying to progress with time and other concepts it has taken on its current balanced and saturated state. Mapping also entered the mix in a very similar manner. These days, we send each other location pinpoints, we can share where we are at any given moment, it says here is the point where the sun will rise, and at this very moment the moon will be in this position, in some way, we are defining nature. But once again this systematic, established on a fictional reality such that we can question its authenticity, just like the meridian parallel system, is an artificial structure like that which defines where I am. We arrive at the same place once again. I tried to understand the mapping system I associated with my works. What sort of thing is it, what is it good for, how was it developed, finding my existence in planar areas in spaces, determining and defning my own area, I began to divide the lower layers of my works into units based on the centimetres of the surface. In my most recent works I established this system, as a structure similar to the meridian parallel system of the world, in frames with spaces associated with me, and yield myself to get lost in a ow within those areas. For example, on each layer that I mask, I become unable to see the one beneath, and perhaps that which is intuitive is more accentuated at just this point. When I don’t completely remember the level beneath, and while having established a very de ned system (because they are works which consist of multiple levels), on one level above, I bring together colours on the palette which I have somewhat previously determined to create the form which exists at that moment. Perhaps this intuitive and mental relationship becomes associated at this point.

Meanwhile, what I can say in general is that I have acknowledged the system, the reality of the system and its rejection upon me. Acknowledging the reality of the system created a space for me to manoeuvre within it. As a result, I’ve been able to establish my own system in the infrastructure of each surface. And upon this established system I am able to intervene in a completely independent mood with whatever that moment brings. It is sort of like this; I have one live, and a certain period of time, and whatever that day brings, however I will feel as if I am myself, however I will best make something exist, this is how I work on the canvas, and play upon them. Do I completely lose my mental reality while doing all of this? I can’t say that I can completely step outside of this cognitive reality of course, but more or less, since it’s something that is predetermined, it would be more accurate to say that there is an intuitive intervention into something predetermined.

ET: Actually this process is sort of like the forming of edge borders along a road, the edges and borders are formed but it’s as if the journey within that border has left itself to ow in its own direction and means. This functioning also brings with it motion, in its own dynamic, and motion in turn, the component of time. From here, I’d like to immediately bring the matter to your pregnancy period and the perception of the space which developed in the abdomen. When a person is in their mother’s womb, they are actually in a place where their perception with regard to infinity is quite open and strong, where they lack a sense of direction; although ostensibly when observed from the outside it appears that they are trapped in a space, in fact after entering life, are in a place which is actually a dimensionless, vast area bound to infinity, which is very difficult to reach.

The perception of that place is one of a spatial void, or a perception in the absence of space, and is quite different. Actually, just as we met with the reality of this world, space becomes a binding reality, a vital element for us. I see this as one of the starting points in your paintings, and a harsh illusion which makes the viewer encounter this restrictive reality, makes them confront it and leaves them face to face with it. We can say that in your process of creating paintings, you confront the space and expose yourself to the experience of being liberated from the binding physical existence of the current space.

SE: Yes, while I’m working, space disappears after a certain point.

ET: We can think of this situation as similar to spiders weaving webs around themselves. By continuously creating coordinates in the place in which the spider is, it creates a space which surrounds it and binds itself in the emptiness with this space. In your process of painting, on one hand when you liberate yourself from the bond, on the other hand, you bind yourself with this reality.

SE: Yes, it’s a little like that. In years past, from time to time, I also made three dimensional works in which the motion in the emptiness was rope, tied together and knotted. When doing this, I was inspired by the motion of a spider and the area it creates for itself. We are in constant motion, being scattered from here to there. For example, if I were to immobilise my motion within my own work area the result would be common ground with the spider web. Everyone experiences this in those voids and spaces, and invisible webs are formed.

ET: All of the discussion is about the physical dimension of this, but indeed there is also the unseen dimension, and in our relations with all people, there is the same curative construct. Consider, the moment you encounter a person, a web with that person is formed actually, had we had the opportunity and had the interaction between people in the energy dimension been visible to us, this would be a lot more substantive for us.

However, one gets the feeling that all of this doesn’t suffice for you and that you’re at a place which is beyond all of this. I sense that your purpose is to reach your own area of reality from the reality of this world, is that correct?

SE: Being in motion is good for me. Constantly going somewhere, being in spaces where I can comprehend history and the current day together, seeing the world is very good for me. In this manner, I enlarge the restrictive web around me and go beyond it in my own right, becoming relatively “more” liberated.

A while ago I realised for certain that if I stay someplace immobile and for a long time, if I’m not in motion, I don’t feel well. If it’s possible, I should go with a reason associated with work. The world is huge and there is a lot to learn, there are many artists, things that have been done and things that are in progress, there are things that pertain to today, and as a result of this, I can reach them and see a lot in a short period of time, and learn. Also, each artist is nurtured differently, and this is the way I am nurtured for certain. Because when I go somewhere, the relationship I establish with that place can have a much greater impact than readings I can do for weeks. Also, I think something having to do with synesthesia being triggered. When I go somewhere, even if I don’t know its history –as ancient cities are particularly of interest to me; even in places which I know nothing about, I get fulfilled and return. By the way, returning is important as well. I stick my nose into everything that will allow me to understand the culture of a place, along with ancient cities, streets in cities, and so forth. I get very nourished at places such as museums and artists’ workshops, and places where people gather collectively, for example cafes and restaurants yield wonderful results for observing people. I’ve strayed from the topic a bit but the thing I call confinement starts for me when I’m immobile in a place, when I don’t learn, and therefore, when I don’t produce.

ET: Let’s sum up all of these expressions in the concept of motion...

In that case, let’s continue in this manner. When we look at your series, a different colour palette from periods and from every place, emerges. When we say colour, I want to leap to a very important subject from here. In a manner which is very closely related to the topics we discussed a bit earlier, the schematic or figurative parts of your works through your interaction with space over a vehicle such as a map emerge and while this is a component of the rational of the product, it appears that the colour part belongs completely to the intuitive realm. That is, the reflection of that space upon you, if we are to tie it back to the beginning of the interview; the mirror metaphor would be very appropriate for this interaction, ultimately humans are creatures which consist of more than 80% water and water is a sort of transmitter, let’s say a mirror of sorts, the reflection of that space upon you then, is colour, is that correct? Actually, your impetus to be in motion is attributable in part to your desire to create and capture. With that motion you diversify those reflections. I go around and around and come to the same place, but it’s because I think it provides a strong description, expression: when we refer to the sea, it’s the strongest tangible area of motion where we may lose our sense of direction. When a person is immersed in water the sense of direction is lost, just as in the mother’s womb.

I feel that you have created this a little in your own reality. The same goes for your paintings. There, that space becomes an area of reflection and whatever kind of colour reflects upon you from that space, so it reflects on your canvas.

SE: Of course it’s very difficult for an artist to diagnose themselves, and I don’t know how accurate it will be but despite that I will try to express my thoughts with regard to myself on this matter of colour.

When I was an undergraduate, I encountered a question on the graduate entrance exams. At that very moment, the exam lost its meaning. The question referred to synesthesia. It described what synesthesia is. In this manner, I learned the name of what I had discovered was my method of comprehending. Synesthesia is quite pleasant and strange. Actually, while it’s something described as an illness in many regards, when I read that brief passage, I found myself. That’s why I described it in such detail. First of all here is what I think; there is less colour in my old works, where I moved less, was more introverted, tried to put myself into a form, while trying to discover some things on one hand the periods during which I was searching show tones instead of colours, and paintings where the contrast is sharper with variations of tones from 2 or 3 colours.

That is where I sought. I was trying to find myself, and the composition and artistic analyses and content. Meanwhile when I assessed myself, I realised that I produced works by establishing relationships with spaces. I am doing this all by building, but then I think about this afterwards, what are the interactions that the places I visit leave upon me, along with the traces they leave, they have sounds for me as well.

Their sounds remain, their colours remain. Places which I’ve painted, perhaps if I were to visit them in a different season, at a different time, would transform to something completely different within me but insofar as the period when I visited, this is the result that comes through. For example, the earlier period paintings of these spaces, especially my paintings of outside places, paintings of Kalamis park and the area where I was born and raised. Kalamis has a colour for me. Beyoglu has a completely different colour. The fundamental reason for the change on my colour palettes is this. I complete the works with the colours that remain by the impacts of these spaces left on me. This layer relationship is parallel with this, and they significantly overlap.

Because you don’t spend a moment in a place, it is a process. You spend a short or long period of time there, you have time. You enter into various parts of that place or that region, I don’t know, you get lost in its streets, you walk or you enter a room, or if you’re inside you drink your coffee and research something and look through books, or observe those who come and go, you come together with people. All of these remain with me as colour, sound, form and smell. So when I start with my works and while I’m deciding systematically where or what I will paint, on one hand I can more or less see the average colour it will result in. Yes, of course as I said, ultimately I leave myself comfortable when painting, but at the out set there is more or less a colour chart. In any case, before I start my works I do my sketches. Regardless of how much I imagine it before I fall asleep, somewhere between being asleep and awake, I create many drafts of the structure, colours and dimensions of my works. Therefore, having anticipated the results, I work by selecting certain paints and colours.

Just at the moment of painting all of the strokes, I realise it with a combination of those which remain and the areas here, thus the painting is comprised in layers.

Along with these canvas works, I also produce works emerging out of these with different characters. Initially, I’d like to discuss my paper works which came about completely coincidentally. Our conversation thus far has proceeded along the lines of my establishing a system, then letting myself be liberated of that system in opposition to it, with intuition and intellect as its foundation. Now in these paper works, the very same situation emerges along with the canvases. I did these paper works for the first time in 2008. And here is how that happened: when creating the layers on the surface of the canvas, when I removed the masking tape, which many artists use as an assistive material, after completing painting, to throw it away, there were incredible images on it. I was very impressed by this, and I didn’t dispose of the pieces of tape that came off, and I started to collect them. Another characteristic of mine is that if I don’t dispose of something I will try to make something with it, and if I can’t then I’ll dispose of it, and if I start something I will persist until the very end.

When there was no more room on the walls for these things I collected, I started to bring them together side by side on paper surfaces. Now I see that in time, there is an exact opposite reflection of this systematic structure on the canvases here. And the material is very fragile, because these colours are on very thin paper.

Meanwhile, here is what I am doing; for a few months, I close up and work on a canvas series, and while I’m working, I leave the pieces of removed tape all over the workshop to dry. The accumulated masking tape is then brought together without any intervention or establishing a certain systematic method, merely with a decision made at that moment. Of course all the while the intuitiveness which materialises after the intellect within the canvasses themselves are exposed in the same area on two different structures. The state of producing works with two different techniques but which at the same time complement each other is also very suitable for me. Because, you know me, I’m like this in personality as well, and my daily life is like this. I make basic plans decisively then don’t push for these plans to materialise but rather submit to the ow of things, and regardless of how things progress, live within peace with that progression. Thus whether I wanted it as such or not, my works took on this trait.

Art, like life, despite all of our constructs is a state of existing in the moment owing within it, and leaving yourself completely to the ow of that moment. What I mean is this; the mind abandoning itself to that which is intuitive and existing in every thing and every place. Continuity and experience assisting in my discovery of new things is one of the best aspects of it.

Those paper works emerge so much as they actually are, and that’s why the name of my exhibit is “As it Is”. I’ve told the viewers many times that after the dismantling there is no act of painting or any other intervention aside from bringing it together.

There are images with light that I’ve done which were produced parallel to the paper works using transparent surfaces rather than paper. This material which came to be on its own, are works which represent an existence beyond the paper works.

There’s another thing, that these canvasses, they have colour books or memory books or memory cards composed from among the papers or light works. As I worked on the canvas paintings for so many layers and so many weeks, there were notebooks that I kept and later, when they no longer t in the notebooks, the cards emerged.

And with these works, what became obvious was; I really have mentally a very systematic character and I try to see it to the end and persevere with something despite all of the adverse conditions without losing my endurance. I think that this memory book and cards can be an indication of this. And because I think somewhat that everything completes each other, I never gave up on creating those either. That dotting action begins with the first colour I prepare for the canvas, and I take notes of all the colours I mix on the palette until the very end. Ultimately; the process comes to life with different materials and in different figures; the canvasses, their reflection on paper, lights and dotting.

ET: You record every moment and the entire experience of genesis.

SE: Yes, of course. And while all of this is happening I record the workshop continuously from a particular point. Recording, keeping, distinguishing, reintroducing for use...I had produced a work from these photographs as well called, “The Simple Time of Now”. It touched on the moment and never really being able to comprehend that moment in its essence. With 1800 frames of photographs. Indeed, I quite clearly have a concern with documenting things.

ET: It’s as if even if you surrender yourself to the ow of life, this ow rouses you on one hand...

SE: I don’t know. I never really stopped to think about it. Maybe I can express it this way, I don’t have time to lose, I’m not one who puts off until tomorrow what can be done today, rather than bickering with problems that will shrink my world, I prefer to fall behind in my own area and get involved with those things which will develop me. Especially in recent years. Perhaps that is the reason why I create a sense of “being roused” to those around me.

ET: What if you lose control...

SE: Of course, that’s possible, I suppose I will accept it and go on, and that will be yet another experience. It wouldn’t be so bad...

ET: It could be very staggering. Right now, you’re recording really everything that is owing with the desire to not miss a single moment. Could what you referred to a little earlier actually be an increase in a void of distance and an increase in motion combined with colour and becoming one, or your intuitive reception of colourlessness? Frightening. As distances increase and spaces broaden, we see that the scales of colour and frequencies take on a greater impact. As space becomes in nite for you, to what kind of a place will the colours go?

SE: And for example, as there is so much motion, the composition, segmentations and overlays on the surface increase as well. These days, when I look at myself from an external perspective, I think it could slow down a bit more, it could calm down. And this state of motion imposes upon me a necessity to be modular and mobile. Of course the thought that initially started with the belonging of a thing as a result of this journey made me think to the point of works becoming mobile, conveyable, and liberated from belonging. As the world is very large, on the other hand, it is not, and taking something from here to another country brings with it many diffculties. It is as such individually, too. In fact, you can be everywhere at any time but because of the weight you carry you lose your ability to move. Both in my life and in my works, I started to consider how one could live a bit lighter and researched historical and ancient cities. The issue of space deepened even further, and as we discussed in the very beginning, began to establish a relationship between the past, present and future.

ET: Insofar as your works in the future, will the surface surface for you? Motion is very important for you. The vibration of colours adds a little dimension, but would you say it will be sufficient?

SE: You read my works very well, I don’t think I’m only making paintings. If the description is appropriate, I define it as a painting installation or performance. There is constant work at the workshop and individual works of course, but for me to hold an exhibit isn’t merely bringing works together in a particular order. I consider how I can move my works beyond the previous ones, how they can be placed, how with a different suggestion I can engage in a relationship with that space, by reviewing the physical conditions of the space where the exhibit will take place. What attracts my attention the most and what excites me regardless of the technique in my production, is this.

This is quite obvious in “First Home”. The work I created resulted in the space changing dimensions by being suspended from the ceiling. Then 55 canvasses in proportion with one another were dimensioned in accord with the physical conditions of the gallery (299x600). Each unit of each piece in what resulted was a structure that I devised and it was such a work that, all of the pieces could be redistributed and in a different setting come together again in a different composition. When I took one piece and put it next to another, it was a structure that once again completed the piece. It is with this unitary and integrity relationship that I approach the outcome. For that reason, I don’t know how true it is, but I call it a painting installation or construct. Most recently at the Galeri Siyah Beyaz I created a painting in a 148x840 dimension called “A Birdseye View” for a column in the front of the gallery, with 11 paper works of 80x80 dimensions which established a relationship with the space out of consideration for the same concerns.

ET: motion and time...
Right now you are like a vehicle at full speed. Watching you is exciting.
It’s as if this time and space will be associated with motion. And as if they will transform beyond this, in a figurative resolution.

SE: and right now, as my concentration is very dynamic because of this motion. My manner of comprehension, and the reflections of which we will see in time.

ET: As you say, sometimes a little more quiet. Let’s see what life brings about when you’re more quiet. We will continue to watch you with enthusiasm.