Collections from Gültekin Bilge | Artwork Archive

Abstract Carved Wood Series

30 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT The Abstract Carved Wood series is a further progression from my earlier series in carved wood. Carving external boundaries into increasingly abstract sculptured shapes has freed my imagination and allowed me to creatively develop new forms of expression. When I made the works in this series, my thoughts were on the concept of concealment. Firstly, nobody can know all that is inside another person. I see that human beings hide or partially mask their thoughts, feelings and motivations, even in many cases from themself. I wanted to point towards what is hidden and question why this happens. I observe that human relationships are not open and there are many hidden agendas in personal, social and political life. I came to understand this psychology by watching the decisions, behaviours and actions of individual people around me and of the political actions of nation states. Secondly, when I look to nature, all my life I could see expressive faces hidden in the trees, rocks, stones, pebbles, waterfalls, rivers and clouds My idea is that faces hidden in nature are a metaphor for the way humans hide their thoughts, feelings and motivations. In 2013 I visited Australia and was very struck by the different types of faces I saw in the rocks. I took thousands of Art photographs of these abstract shapes. This visual experience inspired many of the motifs in the abstract carved wood paintings. I join these two observations to show that many things in human society are obscured. I achieve this by concealing many abstract faces inside the colours and textures of my works in the same way that I see these faces hidden in nature. Many people do not see these hidden portraits in my paintings in the same way that they don't see them in nature. I want to show that most people only notice superficial aspects of external reality. I want to question why so many people do not perceive what is happening below the surface. Most people don't recognise that much goes on in a secret dialogue, behind closed doors or beneath the veil. In my artworks I explore the reasons for hiding from deeper reality. I question why people are content to sleepwalk through life, blind to what is happening around them. I want my paintings to help people wake up from the effects of social conditioning and brainwashing so that they can see what's really going on in the world.

Beautiful Seeds of Destruction Series

11 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT When I began working on this series my thoughts were occupied by the effects of serious illness on the lives of people I knew. Conditions such as cancer invade and destroy bodily tissue, yet research using electron microscopy reveals they have stunning visual forms. I named the first painting ‘Beautiful Seeds of Destruction’ to show that something with a beautiful appearance can result in physical and emotional devastation. My way of sorting out my thoughts and feelings about life is through artistic practise. Working on the first painting made me think about how disease can lie hidden within a body and then suddenly strike and spread quickly with devastating effects on human life. I decided to incorporate a visual representation of disease inside my paintings in the same way that illness is contained within a body. My intention was to explore the impact of what is concealed within. The exception is the first painting, which is an image representing cancer cells. The other works in the series contain forms depicting disease or decay embedded in the composition. I thought to visually contrast the forms of disease with the appearance of human life, represented by many abstract portraits using my Turkish Whirling technique. I appropriated the name ‘Beautiful Seeds of Destruction’ for the series, as a metaphor for concealed sickness within human society. I have personally witnessed how deeply embedded attitudes and behaviours within a culture have the potential to grow and spread like a disease. Destructive forces, previously suppressed or concealed, can suddenly flare up in response to events and spread like infections in ways that create social and cultural devastation, causing breakdown in human society.

Carved Wood Series

17 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT After completing my first wood series I began to carve the external form as a sculptured shape to provide structure and line in the composition. Increasingly I constructed compositions across multiple pieces. Working on the carved woods opened up new opportunities to create a bolder form of expression. I have always seen faces in rocks and trees in nature. By carving the boundaries into shapes my imagination took wings and I felt creatively free to create these new faces from the hidden forms I see in the natural world. I felt very energised and invigorated because I had found a new and fresh way to express my artistic voice. For me imagination is like oxygen, I can't live without it. When I paint my aim is not to make the wall look beautiful. I paint because I have something to say and I need to express it. I want to make people think about what's going on in the world. My paintings often begin with a personal feeling or idea about something I have experienced or observed. As I paint I explore my thoughts and feelings about human life and human relationships on a personal, social, cultural and political level. I mix my ideas and feelings into the paint and use my imagination to find new ways to voice them.

Concealment Series

13 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT:
Everywhere in human life, I observe concealment. People hide or mask their thoughts, feelings and motivations from self and others. Human relationships are seldom open; there are hidden agendas in personal, social and political life. Many people do not perceive what is happening below the surface; they don’t recognise that much goes on in a secret dialogue, behind closed doors or beneath the veil. I came to understand this psychology by watching the decisions, behaviours and actions of individual people around me and by observing the political actions of nation states. In the Concealment Series I’m painting to bring the inside out. Each work has a crisp underpainting representing a recognisable form in the physical world. I overpaint a concealing layer then using sgraffito technique, engrave or scrape back the top layer to reveal a glimpse of inner experience or hidden knowledge that is normally masked by material form.

Cyprus Time Bomb Series (Kıbrıs saatli bomba)

36 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT When I paint my aim is not to make the wall beautiful. I paint because I have something to say and need to express it. I want to make people think about what's going on in the world; my ideas and feelings are mixed into the paint. My artistic practice is the way I explore my thoughts and emotions about human life and relationships on a personal, social and political level. The Cyprus Time Bomb Series has a deeply personal meaning for me. The works start from my personal response to a sense of injustice, and the fear, loss, pain and grief experienced in my life and in my community in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. However there is a wider universal message relating to the choices human beings make about how to live together on this beautiful planet. We can choose mechanisms of control, dominance, ideological brainwashing, unequal power relations, manipulation, betrayal and double-dealing. Or we can choose to live in mutual trust and respect, sharing opportunities and resources, communicating openly with honest transactions between people and nations. I paint because I want people to think about how to live. These paintings predominantly employ my Turkish Weave forms using the sgraffito technique. For some time I wanted to produce a modern style of oil painting that could be recognised as having roots in Turkish tradition. With this in mind I spent some time researching the forms of old Uyghur Turkish writing and experimenting with ways to adapt them into an oil painting technique. One day whilst eating ice cream I had a 'eureka' moment when I noticed some interesting movements of colour as the sun hit the side of the glass bowl. I suddenly realised that a similar effect could be produced in oil paint using sgraffito to engrave the forms of these old Turkish writings into the paint. I began experimenting with this technique during 2007. The mature Turkish Weave technique materialises in my Cyprus Time Bomb Series.

Dissolve Series

20 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT
What I call my DISSOLVE SERIES is the output from experimentation during the summer of 2011. I wanted to create a different texture or style in my works, so began experimenting with organic tree resin as an oil painting medium. During my student days in Istanbul I learned that ancient masters had used natural products to create paints and painting mediums. I set about researching and discovered how to develop a special organic resin from the roots of trees. This medium is the right consistency to allow me to dissolve paint in ways that achieve the effect I want. I made some small paintings that I call 'tryings', then went on to produce a series of twelve works on board before incorporating the Dissolve technique in many future works.

In creating this series I continue to use large and small portraits as an expressive form but they vary in appearance from those made using the Turkish Whirling technique. The large / small, inner / outer, juxtapositions convey my thoughts about the impact of world events and major ideologies on each person's individual experience. Although people experience a unique fragment of the world, there is an identifiable range of emotional responses that are part of our shared human condition. I use my artistic practice to explore this universal experience.

I see all life as a painting. I don't paint to make the wall beautiful, rather to express my thoughts, feelings and observations of life around me. The daily events of my life and the lives of others may trigger the idea for a painting. During the process of painting I explore the parallels in broader society and the deeper psychological meaning of the events that have played out in terms of people's personal lives and also at the level of communities, nations and international politics.

Endless Expression Series

16 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT I named this series ENDLESS EXPRESSION because when I developed my Turkish Whirling style I knew I could use it endlessly to express my thoughts and feelings. The technique uses fluid dynamic forms in oils to create many small abstract portraits as a texture, these are balanced by large abstract portraits to structure the composition. The large and tiny portraits symbolise how similar patterns of behaviour and events play out in people's personal lives and also in communities, nations and international politics. The large / small juxtaposition is intended to convey my thoughts about the relationship and impact of world events and major ideologies on the conditions of each person's individual experience. Yet although each person experiences their own individual fragment of the world, there is an identifiable range of emotional responses that are part of our shared human condition.

Energy Series

70 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT When I look to nature, I see energy everywhere, like an invisible liquid or gas. I feel this energy is composed of freely moving molecules that can inhabit any life form and adopt any shape. I think of every living being as a container of this life energy. When I look to the sky or on a white paper I see millions of tiny energy molecules, they are dynamic, coming and going in a millisecond. It seems they go in every direction, like people in a busy crowded square; everyone walking around but not bumping into one another. I feel this energy like an atmosphere that Human beings inhabit. Humans don’t see this energy; like the fish in the ocean they are unaware of the water they swim in, although they are caught up in the currents. The physical eye cannot see this energy, only the inner eye. It cannot be photographed so I paint this energy using sgraffito to provide it with a visual form. I use fluid dynamic forms to represent different ways this energy is manifest in the world that the physical eye can see. I use the layers and sgraffito to build up a sense of 3D to convey how this energy permeates every layer of our being and so that the viewer is invited into the work, like stepping through a doorway into another realm of reality. I chose sgraffito technique for this series because the physical act of scraping a top layer reveals what is beneath. This is my way of penetrating material reality to make visual the world of energy below the surface.

Habitat

5 Artworks

Independent Works

31 Artworks

Inner Life Series

4 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT The INNER LIFE series contrasts the private inner world with the visible outer world. I felt the need to make a contrast between forms symbolising subtle inner energies and other forms representing the material appearance of human life. I use my imagination create motifs that symbolise inner life as emotional, creative and psychological energy, which may be less tangible than the material world, but definitely not less real.

Joy Of Discovery Series

34 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT I named this series ‘Joy of Discovery’ as I became very happy when I made these artworks. They were created during the first half of 2009. This was an interesting stage of my career when I was trying to assert my own artistic voice. I found it interesting to experiment in a free and playful way with different media. My artistic practice is the way I explore my thoughts and feelings about human life. The artworks in this series are my visual interpretation of certain abstract concepts. It was very liberating to experiment with oils, resins, alkyds, thinners and acrylics to test out the different techniques and then to make further explorations with the textures and visual effects that could be achieved. When I made these paintings I was searching for new ideas as I wanted to develop a modern style of oil painting that could be recognised as having its roots in my Turkish tradition. In 2007/8 I had developed my Turkish Weave (T-weave) style by using sgraffito technique to engrave the forms of old Turkish writings into oil paint. In this experimental series I wanted to find new ways to express myself through the medium of paint. I got the idea that I might be able to find a way to adapt the fluid forms of Ebru into an oil painting medium. Ebru, also known as Turkish Marbling, is a traditional water based technique. I experimented with ways to produce a similar fluidity of form with a modern abstract painting technique using oils. This discovery formed the basis of my future works as the Turkish Whirling (T-whirling) technique is the style that I take forward in the next stage of my artistic journey.

Pebble Series

5 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT In the Pebble Series, I explore the concept of energy, how it manifests and transforms. According to Einstein, everything in the universe is made of energy vibrating at different frequencies. He described matter as 'frozen energy'. My idea was to visually express these concepts. I was inspired by the energy locked in some beautiful pebbles I found at the beach. I use them as material to express my thoughts on waves of energy shaking at different speeds. I create a visual spectrum of energy from the dense matter of stone to the physical energy of human life and the intangible energy of the mind and emotions.

Protest Series

3 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT: The works in this series are my protest about the politics of human behaviour. Many times in my life, I felt puzzled by other people. I see people say one thing and then do another; presenting a false mask to the world. In this series I paint these social masks, or what I see behind the mask. As I paint, I am asking many questions. Why do people project a false image? Why is the true self hidden in shadow? What is this shadow side and why is it concealed? Why do people not recognise or reveal their true intentions? My protest is about the horrible reality that people create in this world when they project their inner darkness outwards to affect other people. I ask why do they want to create a world based on hatred, fear and division? I don't say I have the answers. I paint what I see and I ask questions to make people think.

Quantum Series

15 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT: When I began exploring quantum, my first surprise was the idea of a vast internal universe inhabited by infinitely small physical entities. A quote attributed to Einstein ‘matter is frozen energy’ captured my imagination. As I looked deeper into wave-particle theory, I came to understand that energy lies inside all material. At a deep level, all matter is vibration—energy in motion. Then suddenly, a beautiful realisation opened a whole new world for me - a universe of invisible energy deep inside the material world. I wanted to paint that energy to make it visible through my art. In the Quantum Series I imagine what this energetic world might look like if we could see it with the human eye. I use vibrant colours, structured waveforms, and my sgraffito technique to express its spaciousness and dynamic nature. Sgraffito allows me to peel back layers, to reveal what lies beneath the surface, symbolically as well as physically. These paintings reflect my experience of space, depth, and movement happening within us and all around us. They remind me of Rus bebeği (Russian Doll): a universe within a universe, continually unfolding into infinity. Everything is energy, inside us, inside the world, inside the cosmos. Art is my way of entering that space and sharing it with others.

Sculpture

9 Artworks

Transformation Series

26 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT The Transformation Series is a metaphor for life. All works have clear bands of primary colour that I use to represent the human child, pure fresh, vibrant and full of energy. In each work the primary colours become gradually mixed and transform into complex patterns of other colours. This is my visual metaphor for life unfolding. My idea is that as humans grow and develop they are influenced in many ways; by family community, nationality, social culture, religious or political ideologies. External influences and life experiences transform them into very different beings. In childhood the rules like colours appear clear and simple: this provides a sense of certainty and a perception of psychological security. As humans advance through life they experience greater complexity and uncertainty. Many life situations challenge cherished beliefs. Some people and some societies are open to this transformation and others are not. For me all life is like a painting and in this series I use colour as the material of life energy. I mix the colours into fluid and dynamic patterns to symbolise the transformations that occur during any life journey.

Wood Series

20 Artworks

ARTIST STATEMENT I began painting on wood because I wanted to change the rules of exhibition. Wall art is predominantly exhibited within a rectangular frame and for some time my mind was occupied with questions about how to resolve this problem. One day I saw a huge felled tree at the roadside and realised immediately that I could paint my compositions on natural wood forms. The following week I went to the mountains and bought a cedar tree, had it transported to the sawmill to have it sliced vertically and horizontally to provide me with a rage of irregular shapes to use as my 'canvas'. Then I had the wood dried, sanded, treated and prepared for painting. This process took about 18 -24 months. In 2010 I began to paint on these natural wooden shapes. All woods are primed and undercoated, some are covered in canvas before painting, others painted directly onto undercoated surface. In most of these works I employ my Turkish Whirling technique contrasted in some cases with a built up rough texture using canvas or paper. I developed this technique as a new style of oil painting. I did this by adapting the forms of traditional Turkish marbling although my technique is entirely different. I paint because there are many things I want to express about what's going on in the world. The world around me provides endless ideas and materials. My works begin with a feeling or idea based on something I have experienced or observed. My studio is a space to think and as the artwork develops I mix my ideas and emotions into the paint to translate them into a visual language.