A groundbreaking exhibition, "No One Knows" by contemporary artist Ebru Döşekçi, featuring the recent works of the artist who is using geometric themes to take a closer look at herself and her surroundings, will be at the Alexandre Vallaury building in Istanbul's cultural hub Beyoğlu until April 20.
The large and small bodies that enclose the venue with their hard shells seem at once uncompromising, solid and somewhat conceited. Upon drawing near, one first hears their whispers followed by their impassioned sparkles: green, yellow, pink, orange and blue.
Döşekçi’s works establish a rapport with the minimalist sculptures of the 1950s and '60s, predominantly identified with a masculine language, yet, unlike the objective attitude of this movement, which refrains from making references, these works display an allure that invites the audience to take a stroll among them.
The artist uses geometric structures as expressions, the abstract manifestations of feelings. Instead of concealing the experiences and their traces left on the body and in the spirit with passing each day, she prefers constructive visibility as in "benden içeri" ("in through me"), "I am here" and the series "Herkes – Hiç kimse" ("Everyone – No one").
Musing through the last lines of Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s poem "The Invitation," Döşekçi wants to open a space for confrontation through the visible and hidden elements in her works: “I want to know what sustains you from the inside when everything else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and, if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.”
Owing to her belief in the constructiveness of confrontation, Döşekçi does not allow for somber colors in her works. The prevalence of hope in the exhibition is palpable both through the artist’s delicate use of a lively color palette and the playful surprises in numerous works on display as in "Siz Hepiniz Ben Tek" ("You All, Me Alone"). This also instills the hope of building a better world, just like Ursula K. Le Guin depicts in her book "Always Coming Home."
The imposing body of the work named after this novel resembles a majestic tree with a big hollow to take shelter in, a tree one would like to lean against. While inviting the audience to the confidence emitted by such a tree connected, as it were, with its roots to all the living in the world, the artist also shares her yearning for an egalitarian, label-free, peaceful world in harmony with nature as in Le Guin’s novel.
In "No One Knows," Döşekçi prioritizes the cultural references and that which is personal, all the while including the audience in her story by bringing them together with the works begotten by the experiences of herself and others.
