Bozlu Art Project Mongeri Building is hosting Can Göknil’s solo exhibition titled “Song Thrush” from March 5 to April 20, 2024. The exhibition’s main themes, the concepts of “cycle” and “balance” in both art and nature, reveal the multifaceted personality of Göknil, celebrating her fiftieth year in the art world, and the exhibition’s creative inspiration circles the exhibition like a song thrush.
One of the leading names in our art world since the 1970s, Can Göknil’s recent works are inspired by the “Song Thrush“. Song thrushes, which are classified as migratory birds and herald spring with their appearance, are a tiny bird species capable of inhabiting almost every region of the world. With the arrival of spring, they build their nests in juniper tree trunks and feed on the seeds in the cones of this tree, and thanks to their digestive system, these seeds are scattered in nature, leading to the emergence of juniper forests. The birds need the juniper tree to feed and the juniper tree needs the song thrush to survive. The tiny song thrush, which appears in the first part of the exhibition, becomes a part of the cycle and balance in nature. Frequently including tree cult and bird legends in her artistic productions, Göknil wants to reveal the cycle and balance in her own art. Expressing the thoughts that inspired the exhibition, the artist says the following:
“You know, from time to time, birds inhabit my art; some of you may remember from my previous exhibitions the old-time amulets that took shape when our destiny was in the hands of Anzu the Birdman, or the Nine Birds that showed shamans the direction of goodness on the ninth floor of the heavens with the White Ladies… This time ‘Song Thrush’ knocked on my door… Small in size but monumental in its ingenuity!”
“Harbingers of Love“, another part of the exhibition, is based on folk poems, one of the most vital parts of the oral tradition, which traces its roots back to the Dede Korkut stories. Can Göknil, who has attached great importance to the traditional elements of Turkish culture and our own culture since her early works, transfers the intelligent, natural, childlike and humorous aspects of folk poems that are sung with a poetic cadence to her canvases and interprets these folk poems visually. In this part, in addition to the canvases, the three-dimensional works produced by the artist also combine with the folk poems, revealing the humor and satire that we often encounter in her works.
“Harbingers of Fate“, the first works realized in Can Göknil’s Etiler studio, focuses on fortune tellers, the first practitioners of foretelling the future. The artist’s inspiration for this series is the Irk Bitig, an ancient fortune-telling book produced in Central Asia in the 9th century. Working on the paintings of animal struggles found on the newly excavated artifacts at the Hermitage Museum, in the light of the events narrated in a paragraph in this book, Göknil, who works with india ink on paper, establishes a connection with Islamic mythology and deals with beliefs that she believes have a great influence on the destiny of human beings.
Organizing each of his exhibitions since the 1970s with a different subject and concept, Can Göknil’s exhibition titled “Song Thrush” can be seen at Bozlu Art Project Mongeri Building between March 5 – April 20, 2024.