PRESENTATION:Erinç Seymen-Kīpuka

Erinç Seymen’s work looks at power relationships and uses metaphors and anthropomorphic forms, which coalesce to create a narrative that directly critiques and curtails modern and traditional hetero-normative realities—especially apparent in his most recent works. Using irony/satire as a method, Seymen deals with controversy and asymmetry stemming from the discrepancies in intention, tracing notions of the permanent impact of loyalty, shared values, and the culture of belonging.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Zilberman Gallery Archive

Erinç Seymen’s solo exhibition “Kīpuka” gives place to artists’ recent works, creates a compelling dialogue between disaster, temporality and control. The exhibition derives its name from the Hawaiian word for an island formed by surrounding lava flows, a land that survives and is preserved amid chaos and disaster. This physical separation serves as a metaphor for a state of isolation or detachment from the external world. Throughout the exhibition, Seymen highlights the distinct discrepancy between the borders of knowledge and unawareness. The exhibition explores the temporality of disaster; knitting a trajectory of timelessness of tragedy by highlighting instances of mythology and history. While the artist has previously delved into social relations and class in his exhibitions, he now examines the other side of the coin, weaving a biopolitical nexus between class dynamics, control and its temporality. The exhibition intersects with the concept of disaster in complex ways, reflecting upon broader societal power dynamics and responses to crises, it ponders upon the temporality of disaster and its unifying power amidst society. In works such as “Jugendglück”, “Untitled” and “Kīpuka” the artist delves into governance of disasters whereas in works titled “Gods and Disasters”, “Arms of Tantalus”, “MisPrintce” and “PlanC”, the artist focuses on governance of power. Seymen delves into the relationship between control and temporality in his videoworks, “Alle gegen alle”, “Troubadours” and “Insured”. Drawing a line on how time changes the effects of disasters and control in the society. The work that gives the exhibition its name, “Kīpuka”, showcases a drawing of a sleeping child amidst a volcanic eruption. Influenced by the word itself, Seymen points out the silent moment before a disaster; forming a land of peace along with unawareness. The artist uses time as a messenger of disaster, time emphasizes the forthcoming disasteral power amidst silence, thus time becomes the perpetuity and the transience at the same time. Seymen continues pondering on disaster and knowledge with two artworks; “Jugendglück” and “Untitled. The artist creates a parallel with two artworks by questioning the notion of disaster; how the public decides to name a situation as disaster and disaster’s interchanging role on shaping the society. Seymen creates a discourse within works by delving into different instances from mythology and history and their exchange with control and disasters. The exhibition starts with the artwork titled “MisPrintce”, a familiar work that draws the viewers in. The work that consists of 21 stamps with one errored stamp, reiterates the interchanging capital of a disaster. This woven relationship shows the ever growing rhizomatic expansion of capital, profitizing an error or disaster. “MisPrintce” portrays Prince Albert II of Belgium’s photo with diamonds emphasizing the pioneer role Belgium plays in the diamond market without harboring mines. Seymen carries this relationship between control and profitizing to the “Gods and Disasters” series. The series showcases two different drawings of proletariat workers shaped around the illustrations of 18th century publisher Pieter van der Aa. The drawings highlight a class difference between the workers and monsters nuancing to the controlling elite. Seymen broadens this relationship of power in his artwork “Arms of Tantalus” through the story of Tantalus. Tantalus, a powerful king in Greek mythology, is often associated with the notion of control. After trying to deceive gods to learn if they have the knowledge they portray to have, Tantalus was condemned to Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld, where he stood in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree. However, whenever he reached for the fruit or tried to drink the water, they would recede from his grasp, just out of reach. This eternal punishment is seen as a symbol of the futility of grasping for control over one’s desires and circumstances. Seymen again creates a parallel between disaster and temporality within Tantalus’s story, highlighting the unending power of time, displaying the controlling effects of its continuality.

Photo: Erinç Seymen, Kīpuka, 2024, Ink pen and dry crayons on paper, three-dimensional model frame, museum glass, 176 x 130 x 24 cm Image: 61 x 61 cm, © Erinç Seymen, Courtesy the artist and Zilberman Gallery

Info: Zilberman Gallery, Istiklal Cad. No.163 Mısır Apartmanı K.3 D.10, Beyoğlu / Istanbul, Turkey, Duration: 18/5-2/8/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.zilbermangallery.com/