Tulu Bayar “Cans, Pills & Bullets”

Amos Eno Gallery

[Image: Tulu Bayar "Pills" gelatin silver print, maple board, archival glue, 40 x 40 x 2 1/2 in.]

This event has ended.

Amos Eno Gallery presents Cans, Pills & Bullets, a solo exhibition of new works by Tulu Bayar.

Bayar’s multi-leveled sculptural photographs suggest an array of symbols of what is embedded in contemporary lives. The works offer a simple and direct formal structure, but at the same time confront the viewer as objects with symbolic resonance. The works enable viewers to confront the embedded meaning of cultural significance that exist today.

Bayar deliberately chooses a subject matter that is clear and straightforward so that the viewer cannot avoid it. At times uncomfortable, both her sculptural photographs and prints intend to reach viewers on varying degrees of the psyche. Except for the titles and the actual work, Bayar reveals no answers but instead offers a platform where the viewer comes up with additional avenues of examination. What the viewer chooses to extract from the work has more to do with the viewer’s connection to their own background than any fixed meaning assigned by the artist in the work.

As disturbing as the references to these cultural norms may be, there is an element of truth that is meant to confront the viewer. The exhibition is designed to evoke drama in order to question ideas about the status quo and provoke viewers to think deeply about their own place in this pattern of accepted values.

Bayar has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the US as well as in Germany, Denmark, UK, France, Colombia, Turkey and China. A Fulbright Scholar, she has also received grants from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Ténot Foundation, artist-in residency grants from Camac Centre d’Art in France and the Center for Photography at Woodstock funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation as well as William Sackett Fellowship through Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She teaches photography and multimedia courses at Bucknell University.