Vahap Avsar "NONEISAFE"
Judith Charles Gallery
This event has ended.
Charles Bank Gallery presents the first solo exhibition in the US by Turkish born artist Vahap Avsar.
Originally from Malatya Turkey, Vahap Avsar has lived in New York City since 1995, where, in addition to his art, he co-founded Brooklyn Industries. Over time Avsar has gained a near cult-like status within the Turkish art world due to the directness of his work and his keen observant mind. By working in a variety of media, Avsar’s art always reveals itself through its dissident and critical treatment of social causes, consumerism, politics and the state of the human condition. These themes are always utilized with compassion and a thoughtful perspective, while drawing us in through the direct frankness of the work.
Upon entering the Gallery, the first body of work the visitor sees is Avsar's "Ipdal" series, which highlights and questions the power and purpose of any totalitarian regime. The "Ipdal" works stem from a printer's collection of over 20,000 post cards made between the late 1960's and 1990's, which Avsar saved from destruction in Istanbul. Among the many poignant items found within the collection Avsar focused on a series of cards that had been crossed out and marked with the word "Ipdal" meaning cancelled in Turkish. This censorship was performed by the 1980's Turkish military government as they sought to eradicate anything that didn't fit with their very narrow and controlled vision of Turkey. Considering the images censored would not be out of place in conservative 1950's America, it only highlights the futile nature of any censorship in modern society. How an innocent postcard depicting a soldier with his girlfriend on his lap can be a threat to a nation's government is a mystery to most observers but it makes us realize the extent and power of governing forces and how just how far they will go to create one-dimensional profiles of themselves and those they are meant to govern.
In many ways, the exhibition's eponymous work NONEISAFE is an excellent illustration of this of where such censorship and oppression inevitably lead. The sheer shock of an exploded NYPD patrol car inside the gallery space, makes the viewer stop and wonder about the events leading up to such a site. The ever present knowledge of the potential dangers in our global society is something that we have almost gotten used to, but once our everyday fears are transferred onto such a powerful signifier of authority and safety, we question the strength of the social structures we have created to protect ourselves and are reminded that while oppression exists anywhere, in all truth no one is safe.
Surrounding NONEISAFE are three pieces from Avsar's Explosion series. Using images from mass-media these paintings do not easily reveal their sources, but they do stress both the aesthetic beauty and alluring nature of the imagery of disaster we are confronted on a daily basis. The works change the focus from the tragic human aspect of the catastrophes themselves to the subtle, quiet and even sublime nature of the images themselves
In God We Trust is another interpretation of society's ready acceptance of slogans and the way these disseminate our daily lives. A powerful slogan in itself, its inclusion on a globally used currency magnifies the ambiguity of combining the most powerful symbol of capitalism with the most powerful concept in religion. Magnified and made real it makes us even further question it's true meaning outside it's normal setting and particular so within one so full of loaded and suggestive symbolism. We trust in God to keep us safe while others trust in God to make us unsafe.
In the Gallery's project space, Avsar goes further in his exploration of the relationship created by Turkey's compulsory military service in the video piece Tekmil, a piece inspired by Avsar's recent experience of finally completing his military service at the age of 45 (which the artist had to serve in order to travel freely in Turkey again). Avsar repeatedly failed the Tekmil exercise, which a drill sergeant half his age put him through until he got it right. Months after completing his service, Avsar convinced the same sergeant to repeat the exercise, this time the roles changed. The result is a staggering and intense experience stressing the arbitrariness of rituals, while at the same time highlighting the experience of initiation and the architecture of identity building within the confines of controlled and strictly disciplined institutions.
Ultimately Avsar's art communicates with its viewers directly through its familiarity and empathy it places on both subject matter as well as the audience. In essence Avsar reinterprets the experiences of our global community, exposing it's flaws, faults and injustices, while at the same time keeping an eye out for those caught within the real social crises we are confronted with. These crises are all part of the same global ecosystem where events across oceans and interrelated areas often share cause and effect.
Vahap Avsar was born in Malatya, Turkey in 1965 and lives and works in New York
[Image: Vahap Avsar "Ipdal" (2010) Installation view]
Media
Schedule
from May 09, 2011 to June 19, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-05-12 from 18:00 to 21:00