Versus Art Project is hosting a new exhibition from artist SABO entitled “Time Machine” from Thursday 3 June through Saturday 10 July. Based on the fiction of past, present and future, the exhibition opens the doors of a journey through time with the help of the artist’s figures. Çağla Bölek took some time to chat with the artist to celebrate the opening.
I’d like to start with the formation phase. How did “Time Machine” emerge? The exhibition includes various works and disciplines such as oil painting, watercolor, ceramics, and handmade artist books. Also, the combination of the traditional and contemporary stand out. Could you talk about the conceptual and formal layers of the exhibition?
After my “Paracetamol” exhibition that I opened at Versus Art Project two years ago, I continued without slowing down and completed the “Time Machine” project. The adventure, which started with small recollections and memories of my timeline, merged with the history of humanity and evolved into time travel between the past, present, and future.
The starting point of the whole process was to reconsider my recent sketchbooks, reproduce these pages and create handmade artist books. Concentrating on the idea of copying my works, while browsing through the pages, my time travel started in a way.
I wrote a poem two weeks ago which ends with these lines: “time ends again, leaves. neither a concept nor solidity remains beyond / he must be angry with us as we constantly divide him to him” Later, our paths crossed with “Time Machine”. How has investigating time felt? What did you discover about the human-made concept that is time and perhaps its abstract machines while creating your works in this exhibition?
While talking about the successes, hopes, losses, experiences, and choices made in the history of humanity, I must also say that this exhibition is a process where I entered the time machine I created and embarked on a personal adventure.
What awaits us in the future? How many of the decisions we make are correct? Do we have a chance to return or do we want to return? Humanity continues on its way as always. But there is a voice, a call, that follows us on this path. Nature’s call to be heard. We all hear or feel this. We must make a decision now to shape our future. Only in this way can we secure our place on the timeline.
How did the pandemic affect your creativity? What are your opinions about online exhibitions that have accelerated in this period?
In this process, I went through many changes like everyone else. I can say that positive and negative situations returned to me as different learning outcomes. Perceptions of space and life have changed drastically and we had to get used to these situations. We will see the results in the future.
The first steps of online exhibitions have already been taken. But it didn’t gain as much momentum as it does now. I think it is very important to try and develop this aspect. It is an experience that is quite different from what we feel on a physical level, and it is an interesting development as well. There was also an online exhibition project called “Beyond Vision”, in which I recently participated in the Vision Art Platform. We received positive and beautiful feedbacks.
You do yoga. It could be said that yoga is a discipline where the concept of time might slow down in a flow state and the moment is controlled by the breathing itself. I believe it is a form of active meditation like painting. Did you feed on your experiences in yoga while creating your works for “Time Machine”?
Yoga has been a regular in my life since about 2016. Every day I find a different door of discovery. When I open these doors, certain things will positively affect my life. They inevitably affect my life, my work, and my production. While it was difficult to see this at first, now I can choose a little more easily.
There are many different factors of painting and creating. Putting this at the center of life and doing it as a job is another thing. The feeling of happiness given by completion of a work which is a result of troublesome processes, disappointments or long efforts, etc. When you look at it this way, many emotions can be felt as such in yoga, and I think meditation is just one of them. Being able to recognize the moment we live in can be the answer to many questions.
When I experienced your work I began to be in touch with the irrational, abstract, perhaps suppressed, and mystical sides of human experience. You work and portray these dimensions of life that are hard to put in words. You also have a critical approach to wars, climate change, and economic problems. Could you talk about the experience of being a rebellious artist in Turkey who is engaged in universal subjects?
Although the topics I have chosen start with personal perceptions, when the story expands the series expands as well. In my works, I prefer to create stories using the human figure and shape them with stories to create imaginary worlds. In this way, I have many areas where I can move freely and I find the chance to try different disciplines.
As in “Time Machine”, I try to expand the fictional world I have created, sometimes with a ceramic, sometimes with an installation in space.
The problems we experience globally are already around us every day. I have to feed myself with these problems. It is both easier and more fun to face these problems in the fictional worlds I have created.
Would you like to talk about your future projects? How will we see SABO next time?
There are some projects at hand that have not yet fully became clear. For now, I prefer to take a break from time travel and stay at the “Time Machine” exhibition.
Time Machine will be on exhibition at Versus Art Project through Saturday 10 July.
For more information about the artist and exhibition visit: https://www.versusartproject.com/timemachine
Images courtesy of the artist.
