Şafak Şule Kemancı
01/09/2021 - 31/10/2021
Şafak Şule Kemancı is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Istanbul. In their recent works, Şafak imagines an erotic queer ecosystem where the boundaries between being plant, mineral, human or animal become fluid. The artist shapes this ecosystem through stretching the potentialities of the material. Belonging neither to a specific time nor a specific place, it invites the audience to travel between the artificial and the natural. This is a place where enthusiasm and exuberance are welcomed, and the movement is never exhausted.
In Şafak's works, an intense effort makes an appearance right at the point where the consciousness flows and the mind exposes itself to a performative process. Repeating patterns, textures, figures, and pieces are fluently brought together. It is possible to associate this coming together of repetitions with the plants recurrently blooming in the queer ecosystem to which artist’s gaze has been turned for a long time.
Having studied textile design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, Şafak received her master's degree in fine art at Goldsmiths University of London. They works have been exhibited in various venues in Istanbul, London, and San Francisco.
Text by Fisun Yalçınkaya
Photo by Nazlı Erdemirel
Country: Turkey