Hunting net (2020). Paper cord, 29 gypsum plates, ink, acrylics, sound recording (0:09:39). Dimensions: Net 400×300cm (158×118 in), Plates 31.5×41.5×5cm (12.4×16.3×2in).
Τhis work is composed of three parts. The first part consists of a net made of paper cord. The second consists of 29 gypsum plates depicting the relief of different parts of the net. And lastly, for the third part I recorded the reading of the diary which I wrote during the construction process of the net.
The hunting net has been a popular theme in art history, most notably with Susan Vogler’s net in the 1960s. How do we deal with materials and a million-times over ‘moth–eaten’ visualized images? The Hunting net is an example of work based on self–reflection through a repetitive and endoscopic process. Guided by the Platonic ideas of knitting/weaving, I constructed an associative grid consisting of successive knots. This ‘free writing’ along with its individual decisions (knots) was then decoded into emotions and thoughts in the form of a diary. I subsequently recorded this diary in sound, with myself in the role of the reader. When wondering what this net is intending to entrap, well, it is nothing else but my own self; hunter and prey of my own personal quests. Ultimately, this paper-made hunting net is nothing else than the mockery of its own hunting efficacy.
The gypsum plates visualize the fragmentary hypostasis of today’s hunter. They are placed in a way reminiscent of the abandoned tombstones at İsa Bey Camii, in Selçuk, Turkey, where I worked as a conservator. And yet they are a reminder of every abandoned inscription and antiquity in the archaeological sites of the Mediterranean countries.
Other works: Omphalos: Untied but strongly tied (2019)
