Fog — Millî Reasürans Art Gallery, 2018
Devabil Kara | Fog | Millî Reasürans Art Gallery May 16 – June 9, 2018 The Mystery of Fog: Silent Perception The Unspoken Language Exhibition Valide-i Atik Complex, 2009 In archaeology, an endeavor conducted from top to bottom, the ground we stand on is considered zero. This zero is our current datum, our starting point. Every action we undertake starting from here can be described by the verb ‘to descend.’ Descend where? To descend towards the initial states of our existence, our beliefs, our knowledge, our daily lives. What makes this endeavor valuable is understanding/making sense of our current state, our states, that is, the present. This understanding/making sense is possible because space and time have measurable qualities. Through this, our consciousness determines relationships such as proximity-distance, shallowness-depth between objects. The infinity of the image is organized by the perceiving party. Archaeology is also about objects made by human hands; finding their place in human-accepted (chronological) time or creating a space for them. Painter Devabil Kara, who creates works by acting like an archaeologist in many of his pieces, has several explanations for why and how he makes a scientific method the subject of an artwork. The primary reason for this is to reveal all the determinable times of a specific place within the same whole. Rather than presenting the objects found here individually, it is the desire to show them in their state for a long period.
Devabil Kara | Fog | Millî Reasürans Art Gallery
May 16 – June 9, 2018
The Mystery of Fog: Silent Perception The Unspoken Language Exhibition Valide-i Atik Complex, 2009 In archaeology, an endeavor conducted from top to bottom, the ground we stand on is considered zero. This zero is our current datum, our starting point. Every action we undertake starting from here can be described by the verb ‘to descend.’ Descend where? To descend towards the initial states of our existence, our beliefs, our knowledge, our daily lives. What makes this endeavor valuable is understanding/making sense of our current state, our states, that is, the present. This understanding/making sense is possible because space and time have measurable qualities. Through this, our consciousness determines relationships such as proximity-distance, shallowness-depth between objects. The infinity of the image is organized by the perceiving party. Archaeology is also about objects made by human hands; finding their place in human-accepted (chronological) time or creating a space for them. Painter Devabil Kara, who creates works by acting like an archaeologist in many of his pieces, has several explanations for why and how he makes a scientific method the subject of an artwork. The primary reason for this is to reveal all the determinable times of a specific place within the same whole. Rather than presenting the objects found here individually, it is the desire to show them in their state for a long period. As will be recalled, the spaces Devabil Kara opened in his works from the “4th Layer” exhibition not only offer us a long and distant past, but also present a relationship we establish with a fossil in the present. Thus, the evidence of what once existed becomes evidence for the viewer as well. For humans, memory is subjectively limited by their own experiences. However, when the earth is considered the common memory of all humanity, this boundary can be conceived with wider intervals. Devabil Kara’s processing of what falls to his share from this common memory and re-presenting it to the public is particularly evident in his “excavation in a gridded area.” The gridding method, an archaeological technique, involves dividing an entire area into squares with specific measurements and naming each square. Thus, it aims to establish a part-whole relationship, as well as being one of the objectives in understanding the place of unearthed finds within layers. This method, developed in the present, encompasses all times in its application.
Link to the exhibition page video on the website: https://www.arttv.com.tr/sergiler/diger/devabil-kara-sis-milli-reasurans-sanat-galerisi
