Exhibition Reflections

The work that impressed me most in the exhibition was Ahmet Doğu İpek’s “Stars.” The technique we generally see in the works of the artist is watercolor. Watercolor works are often supplemented with graffiti and pencil drawings. At the same time, we often see sculptures and installations. The work called “Stars” is a watercolor work made with Indian ink. The artist paints his work with black Indian ink on large-scale cotton paper and nicks the painting with a sack to create a star. Thanks to the notches it makes, the cotton inside the paper come out, and these details form the work. This work really impressed me because when you look at the work, it can easily tell you what it means. The artist’s process of creating the work is as follows. The artist, who has gone through dark periods in his life, creates little black squares on a cotton canvas every day during these days. He does this by acting only on his instincts, without acting on any other purpose or following a preliminary sketch. After a while, he takes a sack in his hand and starts to make small nicks, and then his work begins to emerge. He sees this work as an agenda because the whole work is on a certain event cycle. The artist describes this period as follows; “One day, wittingly or unwittingly, I spilled paint on paper and then dabbed it around the paper to form a square, just to Potter about. The next day I did the same thing. And the next day as well […] After a while I began thinking about it; these were records of that day.” What the artist wants to tell in this work is to pierce the darkness, to find the light, and to reveal the light if there is one behind it.