As an immigrant from Turkey, having to create community and a sense of belonging in a new place has inspired me to convey radical love through paintings with the explosion of color, light, and sense of touch. Each touch conveys an emotion or reach for belonging and play. Toys are metaphors for being childlike, carefree and nonjudgemental, all loving and innocent at the same time.
With filtering the many reasons that made me immigrate I create playful and joyful paintings to inspire a more hopeful and positive future. Considering the path I had to take both escaping from injustice, inequality, and corruption, while running for freedom and also giving myself a second chance in life, I point out issues about displacement while emphasizing on the values that keep us going on and give us hope. Through my art I advert love, trust and togetherness.
No doubt images of boats and inflatables immediately remind me of the trials and tribulations of immigrants and refugees. Underneath the colorful and joyful settings, through subtle unsettling feeling I urge to remind the hopes and struggles of the immigrants and refugees, when escaping their homelands and risking their lives to be able to reach foreign lands for a safer future and equal rights.
My recent paintings orchestrate multiple figures entangled with each other surrounded by inflatables and toys, painted in vivid colors with details of textiles, and patterns. Figures in the work are lost in this perfect moment, but still aware that something is not right, this won't last forever. I use inflatables as a metaphor for the ephemerality of pure joy and happiness. They also represent the false sense of security, and questions the sincerity relating to our constant drive for satisfaction and pleasure.
Observing the loneliness and need for attention, accompanied with consumerism frenzy globally, my art evolved from being about my personal displacement crisis, to capturing the universal emotional state, especially during constant global social and environmental problems. While emphasizing on celebration of togetherness and trust, my work also explores the definitions of freedom and happiness.
