Bozlu Art Project is pleased to present Merve Zeybek’s first solo exhibition titled “Inner Map”. The young artist’s works, which combine the visual vocabulary of abstract art and Islamic aesthetics with unique approaches, will be on view at the Mongeri Building until May 17. Zeybek’s works, whose main material is paper, reinterpret the page layout and ornamentation of manuscripts to emphasize geometry, which art historian Oleg Grabar, known for his respected works on Islamic art and architecture, discusses as an element that brings abstraction and ornamentation together.
According to Grabar, in addition to geometry, vegetation and writing are also dominant motifs in classical Islamic art.[1] These two motifs are also among the themes Zeybek follows in his exhibition. Plants sprouting from every corner of the pages, fragmented letters that have turned into mere traces of ink, blend into the countless landscapes that Zeybek has delicately created, and the exhibition turns into a topographical collection that unites all these landscapes. In this first solo exhibition, the young artist attempts to scale and map the universe with an introspective approach and a visual language that already bears the traces of maturity.
Grabar argues that one of the rare commonalities that unites Islamic aesthetics, which is not amenable to generalizations since it exists in many different periods and geographies, is its rejection of iconic imagery and an understanding of visuality that does not rely on representation. This rejection did not mean that the beauty and charm of the physical world of nature, animals and humans were not recognized. The allure of nature permeates Zeybek’s works; one can smell the earth, see the green of the leaves, feel the serenity of the lake. Fungi, recently discovered to communicate with each other through electrical signals, weave a web that connects Zeybek’s compositions.
The rejection of representation also includes a positive approach giving equal value to everything that is or could be represented. Zeybek’s theoretical approaches in constructing her works are varied and include the desire to reach unity by passing through different times and lives of equal value. All these different life paths can take shape in a world of possibilities opened by a roll of the dice. These possibilities include existence and non-existence, the visible and the invisible. Zeybek’s works illuminate the possibilities of life and existence by coating them in gold, and the light emanating from the gold envelops all the possibilities of existence tenderly like the lines of a poem.
[1] Oleg Grabar, Islamic Art and Beyond: Constructing the Study of Islamic Art, Volume III, London: Routledge, 2006.