Hüzün / Better in Tune with the Infinite
Hüzün is a concept in Turkish art that connects to an atmosphere of melancholy and is often found in Turkish literature. My work is an interpolation of these concepts to fit my observations of the contemporary environment I exist in. I reflect on my generation and my feelings about the world's current events, observing intense change while feeling dejected and separated from the rest of the world.
Putting motifs that connect to John Szarkowski's windows and mirrors, I found my interpretation where I have always felt that the window is mutually constitutive. Meaning that while the artist observes the world from the window, the window itself has reflections. Therefore, while the artist sees their reflection, the world reflects onto them. The artist's positionality sometimes being defined by the world they exist in and its constraints. These ideas are conveyed, mostly in portraiture, through chiaroscuro, spotlighting, mirrors, and windows to sub-frame isolating subjects in the images. While the work is supposed to connect to these isolated feelings of melancholy, these practices are to moreso employ this search for the individual to find positionality. My decisions with these images are to search for a place for myself. The work, in a sense, is rooted in what photography and art are, what I see as a foreign and unwelcoming world to me and challenging it. This is why film cuts can be seen in the scan, dust is left on some images, and the artifice of image-making can be seen. Historically the part of the world with ever changing denominations of central Asian / North African / Southwest Asian / Middle Eastern has been overlooked, homogenized, or regionalized as it does not fit the western hierarchy of art or feed imperialist efforts. My work connects with themes found in my ethnic background to find a place for it in the contemporary space.
My generation is simply trying to find our heaven, but I am still quite unsure where to begin looking.
Inspired by Snow by Orhan Pamuk and discussions in Punk Orientalism by Sara Raza
“Heaven was the place where you kept alive the dreams of your memories.”
- Orhan Pamuk, Snow