Constructed

Zilberman Gallery is happy to announce their new exhibition, Zeynep Kayan’s Constructed. The artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery will be on view in the main space in Mısır Apartımanı, November 19 - December 31.
Zeynep Kayan’s works reflect on the urge to escape the two-dimensional surface of photographs through chance and experiments again with the surface. Her process revolves around capturing and modifying the same scene again and again, looking for infinite possibilities in line with the artist’s wish to escape, letting the imagery stay in one and only state. Through recollecting memories of the past and bringing them into the present condition, Kayan highlights the endless and constantly changing nature of photography and its limitless possibilities as a medium in relation to portraiture and performance.
In her new series of works, Kayan is taking this process one step further by treating the image as an object and the body itself as rough material, looking for new opportunities in vision and perception. As Kayan states in her conversation with Mika Hannula, by replacing the “old, familiar” photograph within a “new, unfamiliar” surrounding, she is transforming the physical space into an analogue collage/assemblage, making use of abstract visual elements. Her videos are taking this journey to another level, where photographs act as moving sculptures that can change their shapes.
These new series of photographs and videos are mainly challenging the “constructed moment”, through images pretending like they were always there, inviting the audience to question whether these moments are really just captured or constructed: Is it pure chance that the artist captured this moment? Or are they consciously replaced in this specific state by the hand of the artist? In a way, Kayan’s works are emphasizing the site-specificity of her images that are also time-bound.
In the mean time, Kayan’s voice echoes in the exhibition space: “We are looking for something to burn, or something to drown, or something to roll here.” Reflecting on the anxiety of the artist to capture the moments that happen by random chance, without her control, this statement also reveals Kayan’s tendency to be ready to construct, thus looking for ways to see moments differently, producing more and more repetitious and structural variations.
For more information, please contact Zilberman Gallery; hazal@zilbermangallery.com
Zeynep Kayan (1986, Ankara) graduated from Communication and Design Department of Bilkent University in 2008 and got her MA degree in Fine Arts Department of MaHKU in Utrecht. She was one of the founders of independent art space “Torun” in Ankara. Her solo and duo shows: Pull the Rope We’re Downstairs (with Burcu Bilgiç, Galeri Zilberman Project Space, 2015; Torun, Ankara, 2014) and Uncomplete (Galeri Zilberman, 2013). Selected group shows that she participated in: Second Nature (ODTÜ Sanat, Ankara, 2015), Joyful Wisdom (Rezan Has Museum, Istanbul, 2013), Figure Out: Turkish Contemporary Art (Artsawa, Dubai, 2012) and Uncanny Encounters (Istanbul Modern, 2012).