Daniel Canogar
Vortex
September 10–Octorber 5, 2013
Opening: September 10, 19h
art ON Istanbul
Şair Nedim Cad. No:4
Akaretler, Istanbul
T 0212 2591543
art ON Istanbul, a leading Turkish contemporary art gallery, was founded in 2011 in the vibrant Akaretler district. Located in a historically noteworthy building, art ON Istanbul accommodates contemporary artists that create works of cultural, political and social significance through varied techniques and mediums. The primary goal of the gallery is to support young Turkish artists while creating a new, young and intellectual collector base. Additionally, art ON Istanbul works with well established Turkish and international artists and attends international fairs with its dynamic and inventive approach.
Daniel Canogar’s solo exhibition commences simultaneously with the Istanbul Biennial at art ON Istanbul. Canogar is the foremost name that comes to mind among the new media artists. The exhibition will take place at the gallery venue from September 10 through October 5.
The exhibition, titled Vortex, consists of photographs and installations by Daniel Canogar. Among the works to be exhibited are photos edited with a unique narrative language, reflecting the relationship between the individual, the commonplace and the everyday objects. Along with the Vortex photos, Daniel Canogar’s video installation designed by using CDs, Spin, addresses the same issue of everyday objects from another point of view.
Among the objects Canogar utilizes in his works are plastic bottles, CDs, VHS tapes, old tapes, cables and even bathtubs. Through the video projections, the artist reflects on the surface of such objects, Canogar redefines their functions, attributing them a new form and dynamism.
Canogar defines his art as:
“My most recent sculptural installations are constructed with discarded electronic materials: computer, telephone and electric cables, thousands of burnt-out bulbs, meters of videotape, old slot machines, celluloid, DVDs, etc. The installations explore the short life expectancy of the technologies we cast off and their relationship to organic mortality. These installations also seek to reanimate the lifeless. Light animations projected onto the installations appear to free the energy stored in the electronic waste, awakening in it memories of its past. Through my work I try to bring dead materials back to life, reveal their secrets, revive the collective memory they contain to construct an accurate portrait of a society and an age.”
Canogar explains the content of his works to be exhibited at art ON Istanbul as follows:
Vortex
“With all the forms that purifies it, water stands as an aesthetical component for me. As a natural force that drags its surroundings Vortices (Vortex) is the backbone of my work in photo series. Vortex was inspired by the “Great Pacific Garbage Vortex,” a vast accumulation of marine debris floating at or just below the water’s surface in the Pacific. The accumulation is approaching the dimensions of the European continent. This waste will not only remain where it is for the foreseeable future, it is also growing at an alarming rate, fed by the worldwide production and disposal of plastic goods. Vortex is an attempt to offer a depiction of the victims and perpetrators of this environmental disaster.”
Spin
“The copied contents of 100 discarded DVDs are projected back onto their surface, revealing the moving images trapped within the discs. Due to DVDs’ mirrored surfaces, the projections are reflected onto the opposite wall, creating an abstract double of the films. By layering the diverse soundtracks of the DVDs, an acoustic cacophony raises and subsides throughout the video loop. The piece explores the short life expectancy of the technologies we cast off, and how we are a society entranced by flickering images and the ‘light -mirrors’ we create.”
