The Visual Communication Design department year-end exhibition, “OCULUS III: Patterns of Self”, opened at Karaköy The Wall Art Gallery

The third annual traditional end-of-year exhibition of Kadir Has University Visual Communication Design Department, “OCULUS III: Patterns of Self,” will take place at The Wall Art Gallery in Karaköy between May 30 and June 29.

Curated by Dr. İpek Yeğinsü and academically advised by the department head Assoc. Prof. Dr. Balca Arda, the exhibition features students’ works in different techniques such as typography, photography, photo manipulation, illustration, video, animation, character design and game design, which are the outputs of their creative processes that produce self-narratives.

The exhibition explores the dimensions of the self as a fluid phenomenon through the concepts of portraiture, subjectivity-universality and time perception. The aim is for the viewer to dive into these fluid patterns and perceive the entirety of the exhibition experience as a kind of self.

Address: Azapkapı, Lieutenant Hüseyin Sofu Street No: 11, 34421, Beyoğlu, İstanbul

Visiting Hours: Every day except Sunday, 11:00-19:00

Thanks to: Techizart

OCULUS III: Patterns of the Self

May 30, 2024 – June 29, 2024

Exhibition Committee: Arda Soykan, Ceylin Özmen, Doruk Kumkumoğlu, Emre Sünter, Enes Olcay, Hatiye Garip, Kemal Akay, Özüm Ak

Assistants: Aslı Özenç, A. Ecem Gözütok, Batuhan Yavuz, Yunus Emre Öztaş

Participants: A. Olcay Araci, Alia Khouly, Ayla Hasan, A. Ecem Gozutok, Batuhan Yavuz, Berranur Ozbey, Bora Yalcin, B. Eftelya Bakan, Cemre Ozturk, Ceren N. Dirikol, Dalal Galip, Dila Gur, Ece Alkan, Elvan Ozgur, E. Nur Mutlu, Emir Gecir, Ege Erkorkmaz, Elif Dut, Eren Eryilmaz, Erkan Ulker, F. Nazli Kuleci, Humeyra Kara, Isil Efeoglu, Kenana Al Bazal, Lina Sellami, Meshari Fayad, Muhammad Ahzam Khan, Omar Abdelghaffar, Ozgun Gobel, Pelin Sen, Raghad Sawalha, Sarp Saydan, S. Nisan Serdaroglu, Sumeyra Sancaktutan, Tolegen Khassenov, Vuslat Cetinkaya, Yahia Ali (June), Z. Cansu Sucu

Curator: Dr. İpek Yeğinsü

Academic Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Balca Arda

Image credits:

  1. Meshari Fayad Dalal Galip Ayla Hasan, footage from the video game
  2. Berranur Özbey, Ceren Nurdan Dirikol, Ece Alkan, Hümeyra Kara, video game footage
  3. Sumeyra Sancaktutan, photo
  4. Muhammad Ahzam Khan, illustration
  5. Eren Eryilmaz, typography

Curation Text

As a fluid phenomenon, the self is composed of the interaction of many different dimensions, such as bodily sensations, cognitive processes, affects, awareness of the environment, objects owned, and cultural norms (Gallagher Daly 2018). However, among these, narrative has a special importance. Narrative is the basic element that connects all dimensions of the self and enables them to form a meaningful whole (Leuenberger 2022). Therefore, regardless of the nature of its patterns, each self needs to construct a self-narrative that reflects its character and core values and to be its narrator.

Self-narratives transform the self as they reorganize past experiences, and the exhibition focuses on the outcomes of the creative processes that produce these transformative self-narratives. Each of the works that foreground different sensory, emotional, cognitive and cultural dimensions of the self interact with each other within the exhibition space to create a spatio-temporal network. The aim is for the viewer to dive into these fluid patterns and perceive the entirety of the exhibition experience as a kind of self.

The exhibition’s structure is based on three basic concepts: Portrait, subjectivity-universality and time perception. Portrait appears before us as a personal typography; as a silhouette or a space waiting to be resolved in photographic works; as a fable character in the Twisted Fairytales series; and as an augmented reality-based self-portrait in the illustration series. The duality of subjectivity-universality, especially felt in Golden Record, becomes visible in the tension between those momentary manifestations of the self, whose secret we cannot fully access, and the sensory, emotional, cognitive and cultural motifs that are familiar to us within them. Finally, the perception of time, which reaches its peak in the Dasein video series and constantly oscillates between linearity and cyclicity, ordinariness and totality, allows us, as viewers, to become aware of the fluidity of our self-patterns.

Silk Yeginsu

References:

Gallagher, S., Daly, A. (2018). “Dynamical Relations in the Self-Pattern”. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(664). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00664

Leuenberger, M. (2023). “A narrative pattern – theory of the self”. Oxford University Research Archive. Brill.

About The Wall Art Gallery

The Wall Art Gallery was founded in 2021 by Ferhan Karaselçuk, the owner of FK Medya and Artisans Magazine. The Wall aims to go beyond the conventional “gallery” concept and create space for leading names in contemporary Turkish art as well as young artists who will carry our country’s art into the future, without ignoring the gallery wall.