ART CITIES: Istanbul-By Proxy

The opening exhibition “By Proxy” of Zilberman Gallery new space Zilberman Selected”,” promises a cultural, psychological and political reflection and consideration of potentiality against multi-layered transnational as well as local predicaments and crises that people surrender themselves into. In this context, it interrogates to what extent art and artistic representation can act as a proxy for poignant problems in life.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Zilberman Gallery Archive

In “By Proxy”  the artists express their personal observations and social accumulation through artworks. They create visual discourses engaging in cultures and/or geographies which they feel belonging to or are simply curious about. These discourses spring from various starting points. Alongside rituals, songs, dances and popular uprisings, they proceed through conceptual motifs, critical readings of history, or collages inspired by recent artistic values and figures. Among the works in the exhibition are timeless photographs, mischievous sculptures that call to action, collages that reveal what is behind the visible and a dance video that turns power relations upside down, a tamed box of rebellion, installations and canvases that deepen the perspective on literature and art history, works that confront dictated thoughts with repetitions, knotted motifs that lead to questioning painting’s immunity within art. In this context, Itamar Gov questions historical idealism, permanence, and mortality by reanimating a Jewish ritual which has been practiced in Southern Italy for centuries in “The Mausoleum of Rejected Citrons” and “1000 Rejected Citrons”. Fatoş Irwen unveils representations of violence and the historiography of the dominant culture with intimate and voluminous though fragile materials she uses in her works “Tea Tree, Armour, Pomegranate and Ash” and “Nuh’tan Kaçanlar”. In his installation consisting of “Banana Peel Sign, A Handle for Two” and “Falling, Falling Carefully” and “Care”, Isaac Chong Wai questions relations of power through bodily postures and the act of falling. With his video work entitled “Sweet Dreams are made of This”, Carlos Aires criticizes police violence in Spain with a larksome attitude through the tango, which has an important place in street and music culture. In another work which he created with the banknotes of the most economically powerful countries, he draws on the lyrical meaning of the song “Sweet Dreams are made of This” referring to power and capital. With her “Survival Kit”, Jaffa Lam Laam freezes thought and time by turning them into sculptural works purged of their rebellious nature to represent the usurped right to and spirit of civil protest in Hong Kong. With her installation “Ferman” Didem Erk registers the representation of nationality with different cultural dialects written on garbage bags. With his works “Chanson De La Folle Au Bord De La Mer (After M. Abramovic & C.V. Alkan)” and “2nd Pendular”, Omar Barquet conveys the sinister relationship between human and nature with references to literature and art history. In the selection compiled from Mahen Perera’s “Knots and Cuddle” series, the abstract motifs created with knots based on the representation of “residual” push the limits of painting. The works that the artist created of remnants he collected from ready-made clothing factories during his walks in Sri Lanka transform the materiality and explore different forms of association. In her work “Predella”, Sandra del Pilar conveys the representation of pain through the geography she was raised in and her body image.

Participating artists: Carlos Aires, Omar Barquet, Isaac Chong Wai, Didem Erk, Itamar Gov, Fatoş Irwen, Jaffa Lam Laam, Mahen Perera, and Sandra del Pilar

Photo: Didem Erk, Bir Adım İleri İki Adım Geri, Sewing thread on paper, Dimensions variable, 2012- , © Didem Erk, Courtesy the artist and Zilberman Gallery                                                        

Info: Curators: T. Melis Golar and Naz Kocadere, Zilberman Selected, İstiklal Mah. Piyalepaşa Bulvarı No: 32C, Beyoğlu / Istanbul, Turkey, Duration: 25/12/2021-19/2/2022, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, www.zilbermangallery.com