ISTANBUL.- Esoteric Illusions in the Wind of the Hammer marks the return of Mehmet Aksoy, following five years of seclusion, with his remarkable, unique aesthetic.
This show can be regarded as a programme highlight for
Anna Laudel Contemporary, which opened recently in the old finance district of the late Ottoman Empire in Karaköy, within a historic building comprising a vast exhibition space spanning five floors.
An artist at the height of his career, Mehmet Aksoy is considered one of the most creative and inventive sculptors working within and beyond Turkey’s borders. His unique public realm sculpture projects are displayed in cities across Europe, with a particular prevalence in Berlin, Germany.
Mehmet Aksoy is renowned also for the spiritual themes and content of his artworks, reflecting his individual sculptural imagination and metaphorical expressiveness. His works are mainly inspired by the world of shamanic rituals, spirits, mythology and nature. His main materials are stone and metal although in describing his work he states: ”we are not carving stone, we care carving light”. His works play with light, which interacts harmoniously with the sculptures to express shapes and forms.
Mehmet Aksoy describes the use of light in his work: “It’s all about arranging and making a melody out of the light upon the mass and inside the space. As sculptors, we don’t actually play with great big masses, rather we engage with light. The sculpture has light running through its veins instead of blood and that’s exactly why it can take on different meanings in relation to the angle and intensity of light.
A dramatic or romantic expression, or a harsh, ferocious and wild expression can conversely turn through widening passages into a harmonious and soft expression. These two can multiply or blend into each other, with playful gray overtones.
The initial expression can transform into a silhouette, or the mere stain of a mass that is stripped of all detail, taking on a spartan, simple and striking appearance. This is where the challenge and appeal of the art of sculpture lies. It doesn’t have the kind of fixed and unchanging light preferred by the artist perfecting the art of painting. You need to be able to deal with a different kind of light that whirls and swirls and can change at anytime.”
The exhibition presents a collection of both new and recent works by the artist, inviting art lovers to explore the secrets of the stone and hear the wind of the hammers in the hands of the Hittite masters in Yesemek and Greek masters in Aphrodisias.
Mehmet Aksoy’s solo exhibition Esoteric Illusions in the Wind of the Hammer is a call to participate in a journey through time into the artist’s magical world of sculpture infused by light and colour. The exhibition will be on display at Anna Laudel Contemporary in Istanbul through 20 April 2017.
