Bir Tatlı Huzur / Bebek Sahil

Springboard Art Fair, Werkspoorkathedraal, Utrecht

2023

On the 30th and the 31st of May in 2022, respectively, there was a sighting of a couple having sex, and a man lying down nude, enjoying a cigarette in a busy public spot in Istanbul; the shore of Bebek-a historic neighbourhood on the Bosphorus which has been associated with being a more tranquil, affluent and scenic area of the city. These images went viral, circulating around various Turkish media platforms, and several similar incidents were being sighted across the country around the same timeline. These incidents-for a lot of people had a symbolic resonance of the sociopolitical and economic situation of the country. People were increasingly frustrated with the immense economic and administrative mismanagement that had been increasing in the last decade and markedly of the hostility of the ruling political party towards anyone that didn’t fit in their conservative, political-Islamist following. These images of these incidents had been inordinately circulating across social media and had begun to carry a meme-like quality. In this painting series, these images are monumentalised and slightly obscured to emphasise an uncanny quality that they already have.