Details of Istanbul are revealed in a new photographic exhibition at Gama Art Gallery with graphic design-oriented images portraying the urban identity of the city by focusing on the smaller aspects of the landscape’s buildings and other forgotten details of the city.
Hakan Kürklü’s new exhibition “Wall Paper” opened in July and combines his longtime profession of graphic design with photography to expose what he calls the “junk:shot.”
“I took photos of torn papers lining the walls of Istanbul,” he said. “I believe there are beautiful graphic-design shots hidden behind them.”
This time, Kürklü has discovered a hidden Istanbul and draws our attention to it through the photographic works. It would be unfair to expect conventional Istanbul photographs from Kürklü – he photographs and unveils the Istanbul no one knows.
The artist’s aim with his new work was to find “meaning” in the shapes on the walls and reveal the hidden details of the city. “Details, walls and objects create a fullness and tell a story.”
Istanbul’s hidden story reveals itself through its colorful and altered walls, and the mundane “things” on its streets, according to Kürklü.
The artist does not interfere with anything that surrounds him, but rather documents objects and building surfaces as he finds them. “I like to leave them as they are because they reflect something about the city,” he said.
He does, however, compose his shots in order to expose the hidden design-textures and depths he sees emerging from the overlooked aspects of the city, partly out of a desire to retain a documentary memory of the hidden, forgotten and overlooked textures of the city because many parts of the city he has photographed may vanish in time or change, he said. “Since the composition of the photographed walls and surroundings are destined to become extinct soon due to environmental conditions, it is impossible to re-photograph it.”
“The things I photograph are destined to vanish from the world,” Kürklü said, adding that he feels this makes his photographs more meaningful.