The MYSTICAL CIRCLE
“Everything starts from a dot.”
Vassily Kandinsky
My journey as an artist started at a very early age, or I just did not give up drawing and painting differently from most people whom I believe are born as artists, but as they grow up, they forget once they were an artist like Picasso said that every child is born an artist, the problem is how to remain one once we grow up. Since then, circles, circling and spirals have always been the movement of my hand while drawing, but they evolved, transformed, intermingled with different materials and passed through different stages in time.
Love Surrounds,2000/Ankara I love You,2007/Ankara Atlas of Misty continents,2014/Istanbul
Nail polish&lipstick on canvas Acrylic on canvas Acrylic& mixed media on canvas
The circle is a universal symbol with extensive meaning. It stands for the notions of wholeness, perfection, the infinite, eternity, timelessness, all cyclic movements in nature, the circular heavenly bodies like the Sun, the Moon, planets and their whirling in the space, repetitive human behavior…
Eye Love You, 2017/Istanbul
Ink on paper
Kandinsky, one of the pioneers of abstract art and known with his use of circular symbolism in his paintings says, “The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium. Of the three primary forms [triangle, square, circle], it points most clearly to the fourth dimension.”[1] He continued to investigate forms, colors and their psychological and spiritual effects, which ended in the development of a theory of form based on the psychological effects of geometry. He believed that the triangle embodied active and aggressive feelings, and the square represented peace and calm. The circle suggested the spiritual realm. For Kandinsky, the circle suggested the fourth dimension, and its many floating appearances in Composition 8 prolong the painting’s resonance.[2]
Eye of the Cyclop, 2018/London
Oil paint on canvas
Along with the circles, I use symbols, signs, stamps, patterns that I think to link us inextricably with nature and history. These are well known and repeated, without being passed on physically or through oral traditions providing strong evidence for the existence of what Jung calls the collective unconscious.[3]
Collective unconscious and archetype are two fundamental tools I am using consciously. (pic: Eye of the Cyclop,2018)
It seems we have lost our connections to our essence and roots, and it would seem that this loss is at the heart of man’s loss of connection to a meaningful life and to the symbols of nature. In this sense, the art of symbolism is a means of getting connected to our primitive self and a means of narrative abstraction. “With no doubt, the abstract is a form of mysticism.”[4]
Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was also a leading artist who discovered the connection between mysticism, abstraction and built her unique style on it.
“Through new modes and themes, af Klint developed her own signature, nonobjective style to express deep, mystical ideas in abstract imagery. Af Klint’s art was designed to convey transcendental messages to humanity. She was rooted in movements born out of the turbulent turn of the century, in many ways her practice speaks directly to the spiritual and philosophical perspectives of today.”[5]
Picture of the Starting Point,1920 by Hilma Af Klint
50x30cm
My interest in semiotics and archetype, my discoveries in collective conscious and my unending search for universality took me to mythology, an infinite source of narration and symbolism. I realized that mythological stories, legends or myths are basically the most primitive forms of our contemporary lives. Whatever there is in mythology is exactly what we have today. My painting Prometheus' Fire is a story based on Prometheus' stealing the fire from the Gods and his being punished (rebel against the authority). Then, he is released from his chains has strong references to freedom and forgiveness.
What else intrigues me in this story is that the rings we use today as a symbol of attachment and loyalty are derived from Prometheus' leg irons. After Zeus set Prometheus free, he wanted him to wear the iron chains forever as a symbol of his loyalty to him. Today, the wedding ring stands a symbol of loyalty. Thus, through painting and my technique, I happen to unveil the archetype of a wedding ring.
Prometheus giving the fire to men [6]
Prometheus’ Fire, 2018/ London
Oil paint on canvas
The circle also provides me with a wide field of study, from mysticism to psychology, from cubism to symbolism, from Dadaism to avantgarde and from relational aesthetics to alter modernism.
Although I studied social sciences and linguistics, this background enabled me to have an interdisciplinary outlook through art which is sometimes stuck in the fine arts academic perspective, artistic rules and laws. Interdisciplinarity is one of the key words of our age. And art is at the core of this junction, the life. Other fields, social or scientific, are like streams either feeding it or taking nourishment from it. It is inevitable for art/ist in this alter modernist[7] age to get interacted or cooperate with a diversity of study areas, which makes art more social and relational, brings closer to the society and human. “The artwork is no longer an end point but a simple moment in an infinite chain of contributions.”[8]
My installation “Shifhahane(the healing place)” inspired from Ottoman era alternative healing places simply made use of an artistic representation to bring a historical concept of healing to today’s viewer. As I believe art should not be a privileged and independent sphere but instead fused with life and people. I also believe the viewer should have the right to participate in the artistic process actively. Like Duchamp says that it is the viewers who make the paintings.[9]
Shifahane, 2018/Istanbul
Ink on paper printed on silk
I like texture on the canvas. I think it is the result of my longing for a third dimension on the canvas. My technique of scratching the paint has the ability to show the movement, which means nothing is stable but everything is in constant move. They also give the illusionist impression of moving, flowing, whirling...My latter relation to the canvas after painting starts from the beginning with my scratching technique. Canvas is not a painted area for me after that, but a tabula rasa from the stoic epistemology on which I can use my new alphabet and create my unique but universal language.
As I scratch, some hidden shapes, symbols come out under the surface. That is the biggest clue to unveil the mystery of the story in my paintings.
The gold leaf haloin another element on my paintings inherited from Renaissance tradition. [10] I use it as my signature and as a symbol of goodness, which is the principal intention of my paintings and other artistic studies like installations and sculptures of different media.
Installations and conceptual sculptures support and strengthen the meaning of my painting and my goals I target to achieve through painting.
I have a theory that art which I simply associate with creativity, connection to the divine, hope, healing, goodness will save the world. I assume I am not alone, “It is not in the role of an artist to worry about life – to feel responsible for creating a better world… When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. All art work is about beauty; all positive work represents it and celebrates it. All negative art protests the lack of beauty in our lives.”[11] My metal sculpture about Yemeni kids who die of starvation and malnutrition supports Martin’s words on representation of negativity through art. While I use cold and hard materials like stainless steel and stone that associates with the gory issue, warm colors symbolize “hope” for finding a solution. Art is not something to underline or imitate the ugliness of the world but point it out and recreate it in a beautiful and artistic way. That is why one of my biggest dreams related to my artistic career and journey, to contribute to global problems and try to find solutions through my paintings and art projects.
Art is more powerful than we can imagine.
Kids United,2018/London
Metal on painted brick
WORK CITED
1. Grohmann, W., 1976. “Guggenheim Museum Paintings”,vol. 1,New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, p. 310.
2. O’Donowan, L., 2009, “Kandinsky's Creations: Notes on a spiritual revolution”, American Magazine, available at: https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/714/art/kandinskys-creations
3. Bourriaud, N.,2005. “Post Production” ,New York: Lucas&Sternberg, p.20
4. Levine, E., 1971, “Abstract Expressionism: The Mystical Experience”, Art Journal, Vol. 31, No. 1 Ney York: CAA, p. 22-25
5. Af Klint,J., Ersman, H., 2018, “Inspiration and Influence: The Spiritual Journey of Artist Hilma af Klint”, Guggenheim blogs. Available at:
6. Buskirg, M., Nixon,M., 1996, “The Duchamp Effect:Essays,Interviews,Round table”, Massachusets: MIT, p.111
7. Reynolds,C.,2016, “Agnes Martin:Beauty is the Mystery of Life,” available at: http://www.artbook.com/blog-excerpt-agnes-martin-beauty-is-the-mystery-of-life.html
NOTES
1.Collective unconscious, term introduced by psychiatrist Carl Jung to represent a form of the unconscious (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware) common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain. It is distinct from the personal unconscious, which arises from the experience of the individual. According to Jung, the collective unconscious contains archetypes, or universal primordial images and ideas. https://www.britannica.com/science/collective-unconscious
2. A halo has been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes. In the sacred art of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, among other religions, sacred persons may be depicted with a halo in the form of a circular glow, or flames. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(religious_iconography)
3. Having stolen fire from heaven, Prometheus gave it to men, teaching them many arts and handicrafts. For this, humanity has often regarded the titan as a "benefactor". Yet humans rapidly made a habit of employing Prometheus' gift to cook and burn one another in various ways.
From a Liebig trade card – Prometheus’ stealing the fire https://www.pinterest.com/pin/351069733432491917/
4.Altermodern, a portmanteau word defined by Nicolas Bourriaud, is an attempt at contextualizing art made in today's global context as a reaction against standardisation and commercialism. It is also the title of the Tate Britain's fourth Triennial exhibition curated by Bourriaud.
Altermodern can essentially be read as an artist working in a hypermodern world or with supermodern ideas or themes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altermodern
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