Galeri Nev Istanbul is pleased to present Meltem Işık’s “Suspicious Affinities”. Opening on May 15th, the show marks the second solo exhibition of the artist.
Through her most recent pieces, Meltem Işık continues her inquiry into the way we see and perceive the human body. The complexity that originates from the capability of our bodies to see and be seen simultaneously provides the basis of the two-fold view in her work. Carefully putting together close-up photographs of different bodies, she suggests alternative readings on what we see, and explores the role of our perception and memory in constructing reality. Utilizing similarities and differences between the eye of the camera and human perception, she looks into photography’s relationship with that reality and it’s function in constructing the past.
“Human eye is capable of perceiving the whole, while focusing on a detail simultaneously. However, looking through the camera, one has to choose one or the other”, says Işık. Setting out by photographing details of different bodies, she then assembles these choices into a whole that is other than the sum of its parts. The artist describes this part of her creative process as forming sentences with words borrowed from others.
Işık was born in Ankara. She received her B.F.A. in Graphic Design from Bilkent University, Ankara, followed by her A.A.S. in Jewelry Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. In 2011, Işık received her M.A. from the Department of Visual Arts at Sabancı University, Istanbul. In 2012, she joined Galeri Nev and had her first solo exhibition in Istanbul the same year. Works by the artist have been the subject of group shows, including Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair (2012) and Borders Orbits 09 Siemens Sanat (2011). Işık lives and works in Istanbul.