19 DECEMBER 2017 – 17JANUARY 2018
At some point, love is the reason for our existence. It is a common feeling that humans have had for many centuries. It is a strange sentiment that everyone experiences differently, but eventually makes us all cry, laugh and get excited. This abstract concept is turned into verses and visuals by artist Belmin Pilevneli’s perspective in her first solo exhibition, Art You In Love? She wishes to make the audience feel empathetic, by referring to loves that were experienced in the past and have turned into poems. By doing this, she aims to draw attention to differences, as well as similarities in the way of expressing today’s ‘love’.
In order to do this, she visualises both her own and some poets’ poetry who left their marks in Turkey once, or the visuals turn into verses from the viewpoint of someone living in in 2017.
She takes the traditional technique of embossing to a contemporary level, by preparing her own plates and the shapes she draws, while using them as a metaphor for the idea she defends. The paper, which isn’t painted, has its own texture and tactility, symbolising purity and distance. In addition to embossing, she visualises her semi-abstract forms with other traditional techniques: pencil and coloured pencil drawing. By harmonising these classical techniques and methods with contemporary technology, she silently aims to demonstrate the transformation of experiencing love and expressing it in time, and the potential of its digitalisation and game-like, quick consumption, even though some of the emotions stay still.
