While doing Erasmus, I had the opportunity to visit different cities and countries. The values given to art and things related to art in the country; I had the opportunity to see its economic, psychological and sociological reflections. These things I experienced were reflected in my work. The first of these works was created with inspiration from 3 cities. Our first city is Ankara, the city where I have lived for years. The subway posters in Ankara, which contain limited artistic content, are an issue that bothers me a lot. This subway poster is one of the biggest indicators of capitalism in my life. These billboards, which can be evaluated with beautiful images and can help the artists a little, are watching you like the big brother in George Orwell's book. It is literally watching because on these posters there is the text “They look here” below a one eye. Quite simply, it's an eye watching you on an empty board that has no artistic features that make you feel uncomfortable and uneasy.The second city is Wroclaw, where I spent 6 months in Erasmus. Advertisements in most places I looked were about art. The value given to art was palpable. I will add one of the photograph that i took about a poster to the attachments with a photo I took during a trip. Additionally, according to Street Art data, there are 258 works of art on its streets (and i had opportunuties to see them), while no data has been recorded in Ankara. As a citizen myself, I would like to point out that there is very little street art. 3rd is Vienna. It is a happy and cute city where you can find a lot of art and many things related to art. The most important thing I noticed here was that I could see an artist's painting being sold in any shop on the street. This is very difficult in my city, its availability is often limited and at prices and locations that are not accessible to everyone. In short, as an artist, I can say that artists are not given opportunities in my city and that opportunities for art and things that are related to art are limited.
1)ROTTEN AND OBEDIENT
My first work was inspired by these cities. First of all, the combination of a severed eye, “they will look here” text and red represents the fact that this red dries turns black and gives a bad smell, capitalism has become rotten and my city is swarming like flies to this situation but cannot react.The patterns I was influenced by Klimt while visiting Vienna and the fusion of colors that can be found in nature, which are the symbol of freshness, represent the artistic pleasure I gained in these cities. The biggest difference between the two cities is that one has got rotten because of capitalism, while the other has managed to keep up and create opportunities.
Environment and people around me and the joyment i got from them gave me lots of inspirations and new art styles in my works too.
2) WROCLAW’S DWARFS
This dwarfs means too much for me. They have a meaningful background but also in every corner you can see them, and they mean too much to me because i meet my lots of friends and made lots of memories around them.
4)A GOD OF INDIA
The most interesting part about this is learning new things you've never heard of before. One of these things for me was to meet Indian culture and one of their beliefs and to see the environment where my friend prayed. This belief deeply influenced me and is reflected in my work.
-MEETING WITH ARTISTS
I’ve met Tomasz in here, my polish friend also interested in art. He really made me realize that art is something that i should hang on and live with it.
I got suggestions from him and one of them was art festivals.
I’ve never been in one before. In this festivals people were selling their own work and making money. The first person I met was Beatnik. I bought a few products from him and while wandering around here, I remembered how difficult it would be to practice my art in my country. But it was the first of the events that pushed me to own a business. The picture down below includes a memory from Beatnik :)
Also with tomasz we went an art festival that made me met with new visual art. I had no idea before about linocut prints, i have learnt it in one of the festivals and from tomasz’s experiences about it. Now it’s my main product for my small business.
5)MY LINOLEUM PRINTS:
The festival i’ve learned about lino prints and the first one i bought
Artist’s instagram is : @112tatu
Tomasz’s first try thought us tooo many things…
6) WAR
I also had the opportunity to meet many Ukrainians who were victims of the war. I met a family in the dormitory I was living in. This family consisted of 4 members and we would chat every time we see each other. The war had affected them badly. I was talking most of the time with the mother of the family. As a mother and woman, what she was telling me always deeply affected me. I created a study based on all this. This study was based on mice trapped in order to gain power and money. While the trap represents the conscience, the mouse represents those who start the war and those like them. If this environment of darkness falling inside is inevitable, the rainbow outside represents our world when this power and money are avoided. The text written means “Our trap”.Unfortunately, all of humanity is responsible for this and it is all our fault that nothing has changed and these families cannot return to their homes.This is also a trap that humanity has created itself, and falling into this trap is in its own hands.
