TARIK TÖRE, HUMILIATION: PİLEVNELİ | DOLAPDERE

Tarık Töre

Humiliation

March 6 - April 6 2024

PİLEVNELİ | Dolapdere

PİLEVNELİ is hosting Tarık Töre's solo exhibition Humiliation from March 6 to April 6, 2024. Through drawings, images, symbols, logos, and writings that often meet on the same surface, the artist creates holistic compositions from fragments, adopting a critical approach laden with humor and irony. Through his work, Töre addresses contemporary issues such as the proliferation of images in today's society, societal boundaries, environmental changes, and aspects of popular culture, particularly those prevalent among his generation. This exhibition features not only Töre's paintings but also a space installation, which prompts viewers to reconsider the significance of clichéd images in a new context. Töre explores how viewers interact with his artificially constructed environment and examines the impact of this interaction on their perception. His paintings, with their vibrant colors and plastic-like appearance, evoke a childlike expression, inviting reflection on the constrained and stereotypical lifestyles embraced by individuals in today's society, as they increasingly detach themselves from their natural surroundings in favor of artificial realms.

In his works, Töre deals with the intricacies of the human mind and collective memory, employing symbols from pop culture and at times scenes from art history. Through his compositions, he conveys the essence of the contemporary era with a touch of irony. His new exhibition Humiliation consists of a spatial arrangement and a group of paintings spread over two floors of PİLEVNELİ. In the installation on the ground floor, he creates a completely artificial park environment with fake grass, trees, flowers, camping chairs and even garbage. The sunrise and sunset projected through a screen, accompany this installation, which questions the position of the artist and the viewer, whose relationship with nature has also changed in art production as a result of the change in human's relationship with nature over the centuries, with a completely artificial but familiar fiction. Töre, who frequently thinks about the changing, reproduced or clichéd meanings of the definition of kitsch and images over time, and produces accordingly, also questions the "artificial paradises" we create for ourselves and we limit ourselves to, through this unnatural park (artificial nature) and each element within it. So, as we step into the gallery, what can we anticipate from the park we typically find outside, now transposed into the classical white cube gallery space, manifesting as an entirely fake landscape with synthetic lawns, trees, and flowers under artificial lighting, a representation we recognize yet acknowledge as entirely fabricated? Do we sit on the grass, pick up the garbage, or how do we approach the details we see around us in a space that we know is a gallery, monitored by a camera? How do we position our bodies in such an aesthetic, attractive, colorful yet uncomfortable environment, and what kind of responsibility do we feel towards our surroundings? Although the artist seeks the answers to these questions indirectly rather than directly, he attaches importance to asking questions through a space, making observations, creating a dimensional atmosphere instead of only hanging artworks on the walls, both in terms of his own production practice and the viewer's experience.

On the lower floor are Töre's recent paintings, which stand out with their plastic effects and colorist attitude. It is possible to say that artificiality is again evident in every aspect of the small compositions, which are extremely densely textured and draw attention with their sticker aesthetics. "My favorite thing about stickers is that they show how a simple graphic or design can enter the subconscious of society and become part of the visual zeitgeist for the next ten or twenty years," says DB Burkman.[1] Indeed, these are images that have become part of our lives, easily available and used as a simple and practical tool over the years, especially as part of branding and the consumer economy.

Simple images that have always had an impact and recognition in social culture, finding ways to convey themselves in different ways, even as they get older and lose popularity. Whether they are the logo of a brand, the emojis and stickers of phone and messaging culture, or the sticker books and iconic images of the 90s, it is obvious that they continue to exist in some form in every era. In the artist's colorful and textured paintings of similar sizes, butterflies, smiley faces, and stars appear, evoking a childlike charm but also carrying a subtle sense of unease. Amidst a world where genuine happiness feels elusive, these symbols, created by an artist considered an "adult," challenge our perceptions. When displayed together in an exhibition, they draw us away from the artificial cheerfulness of our surroundings, prompting introspection and a hint of discomfort. Producing new scenes with the feeling of creating something new from the images we have been accustomed to for years, which are extremely ordinary, nothing special and even considered as an outdated aesthetic, Töre transforms acrylic into a plastic material, referring to the environment, the neighborhood, his generation, the familiar, fast-flowing bombardment of images and the simplicity of design worlds. In addition to these box-like, small paintings that emerge from fake worlds in their own space, there are also works that create a composition in the same space with box-like borders and lines of different sizes, certain rhythmic repetitions, consisting of brick compositions and color fields.

In his recent works, the artist simplifies again, focusing especially on colors and textures. In the process of simplification, he takes the method of the artist Stanley Whitney and uses it as a road map, and then begins to bring this new form of expression, in which he puts colors side by side in blocks, closer to his own compositions and language. Again, using fragments on the surface, he focuses on the relationships between colors, their rhythm, emptiness and fullness instead of figures, leaving the painting alone with its own potential. These blocks of color are always open to becoming a background for the figures, or to transform into new forms with various layers. However, Töre leaves all possibilities on the painting by opening space for the viewer's perception and creativity. Bringing the process of painting to the forefront by simplifying with the color and box formula, the artist establishes an inter-temporal dialogue with artists such as Stanley Whitney, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Paul Klee, known for their color field paintings.

After all these paintings and spatial constructions, one is of course left with the title of the exhibition, Humiliation. Is humiliation related to the images we see here? Or is there a state of action that involves us, the visitors of the exhibition? By whom, towards whom or what does the humiliation take place? As he always does, Tarık Töre leaves criticism, humor and curiosity with the viewer, letting them find their own way through words, images, expressions he creates and plays with himself.

Humiliation was carried out with the support of Zuhal Müzik.

Text: Gizem Gedik