Fields of Roses: Mehmet Resul Kaçar
Past exhibition
Overview
Galeri 77 proudly presents Field of Roses, Mehmet Resul Kaçar’s first solo exhibition in Istanbul. This exhibition, named after a region of the artist’s hometown Diyarbakir, features a video work along with his new paintings. In Field of Roses exhibition, Kaçar depicts the region in which he was born and raised. On one hand he conveys landscapes with a unique plastic language, on the other hand examines the connection between animal abuse-human violence.
Kaçar’s landscape paintings go beyond traditional representation of nature. His use of spike-yellow as background shows the key points of the artist’s originality. First of all, it is easily noticed that the paintings are not the depiction of natural scenery “as such”. The sense of depth in these imaginary landscapes is given by different tone applications of the same color and/or matte-gloss texture contrasts. Thus, stands out the color sensation rather than rational linearity. In modern arts where the color becomes the subject of painting, Van Gogh is undoubtedly one of the leading artists who use yellow most effectively. In a letter to Emile Bernard, he defines yellow as “the embodiment of the utmost clarity of love”. Similarly, Kaçar’s use of yellow has the potential to open up to sublime and eternity. Its originality lies in the fact that the yellow color assumes a geographical character as it may signify a longing for homeland.
Endless fields, plains, steppes and animals grazing in the mountains come to mean peace and tranquility for those who live in the chaos of Istanbul. However, the geography and climate of South East Anatolia is as harsh and violent as its history. In this spiral of violence, the main issue of Kaçar is to depict the animal abuse and other forms of human cruelty. His childhood memories, the testimonies of his family and his circle about human-animal relations become a universal problem and make it possible to question the notion of violence in human nature. Thus, Kaçar criticizes the exclusionary and destructive consciousness behind any human activity that objectifies nature and animals, such as cock and dog fights, hunting as a leisure, Safari tours etc. Meanwhile he becomes the subject and object of his paintings. Sometimes he appears as an observer with his shirt, tie, and red jacket examining animals from outside or as mediator sitting at the table with them; sometimes as a character being chased by them.
The fact that the explicit disclosure of violence in Kaçar’s paintings is associated with both geography and humanity leads us to philosophical, historical and political inquiries. When it comes to the severe conflict between humans, nature and animals, he invites us to rethink about our consciousness.
Installation Views
