Merdiven Art Space is hosting Pınar Baklan’s solo exhibition Sound and Breath from 16 November to 26 December 2022. Opening to the viewer the stories and diary of the two-and-a-half years since her resignation from academia—when she moved from the city to the village and began producing as an independent artist—she gives them form through ceramic materials and techniques.
Reflecting in her imagery the effects she has discovered nature’s phenomena have left on her subconscious, her personal experiences, and the childhood traumas brought to light through therapies in this new chapter, the artist presents abstract-organic, biomorphic forms. Emphasizing the themes of dialogue, nature, and womanhood, she draws on the limitless plastic possibilities of clay.
Working with clay—one of the most primitive yet still most modern materials—for her fourth solo exhibition Sound and Breath, the artist states that, rather than challenging the material, she does as she always has: listens to its voice, its breath, and its song; tries to understand and feel it; and, with the most primal emotions, the most human desires, the oldest methods, and with respect, attunes herself to the rhythm of the clay.
Presenting characteristic figures, illuminated sculptures, and wall arrangements that she describes as laden with anxiety, hope, and faith, Pınar Baklan addresses art lovers in Sound and Breath in her own expressive language as follows:
“Alone and together, those completed and completing…
Two bodies, one breath, those who are one and many voices…
Those who shout in a whisper…
Those who breathe and who become breath for another…
With light upon them, those who illuminate and shed light…
The works in this exhibition are terracotta figures that give off an inaudible voice, a gentle breath.
About me and about us…
Like a diary in which I lay open all my feelings—joy, pain, anxiety, hope, longing, and intention…
Like three-dimensional reflections of my subconscious, whose voice I hear for the first time and whose breath I try to get to know…
The characters of my new story, whom I have come to know in the process of understanding myself—silent instruments, each with its own timbre…”
