KAZIM KARAKAYA / TRANSFORMATION

About

Bozlu Art Project Nişantaşı is continuing the art season, becoming ever more vibrant with increased fair activities, with an exhibition of works of sculptor Kazım Karakaya. The exhibition entitled "Transformation" consists of a selection of recent works of the artist as well as 11 sculptures produced using waste materials during the 5 month tenure of the artist at the iron and steel plant in Bursa. As Kazım Karakaya says, "the reading of any of the associations of an object is possible with the downfall of the existing opinion, the preliminary information. To the question "can the same form, the same material carry different reflections intrinsically", I would answer: Yes!" In this exhibition, Karakaya uses different media such as stone, aluminium and iron to push the envelope of creativity, adding variety to the unchanging language of form with materials and is inviting you to witness the "transformation" of waste materials.

The exhibition "Transformation" marks the recycling of waste materials as well as the transformation of industrial production into artistic creation and on the other hand, the series "Warriors" appearing in the exhibition questions the human condition and the transformation of human beings in the light of current events. The "Warriors" series, created as a result of the subconscious reaction of the artist against increasingly normalised violence that occurs today, references the form based dualities of light and shadow, absence and fullness in sculpture to reflect the emotions and conflicts that human beings carry within.

The exhibition name checks Kafka's famous novel in which the character Gregor Samsa embodies the metaphor of the individual alienated from himself and society, experiencing shallow relationships in daily life. The exhibition examines the relationship between alienation and the passive behaviour patterns with a new content and form provided by the transformation of the material used. 

About Kazım Karakaya

Kazım Karakaya was born in Ankara in 1971 and studied at the Department of Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Hacettepe University. He collaborated with sculptor Mehmet Aksoy between 1993 and 2003. The artist opened his first personal exhibition at the İş Bankası Parmakkapı Art Gallery in 2004, after participating in a number of national and international joint exhibitions and symposia. Since his early years, Kazım Karakaya has been searching for new possibilities in terms of materials, referencing organic articulation and examined the relationship between the unity of material and form, aiming to return to the essence of the material while allowing for a multiplicity of readings.