Artist Talk: Akbank Sanat Beyoğlu - 7 March 2012 @ 18.00
In his new show, Digital Darkness, opening on March 1st, 2012 at x-ist, Burhan Kum brings to light the realities of an era, where oppression is marketed as freedom, with his critical tone and confrontational style.
For those of you who haven’t had a chance to see Kum’s previous exhibitions And... But...Or... (2008) and Format Theory (2010), let’s briefly summarize: Burhan Kum is a socially conscious artist and a writer who uses art, his personal equivalent to politics,to intervene in the public status-quo and to confront the society with the invisible and engrained control mechanisms by providing examples from daily life.
‘Digital Darkness’ examines the domination of digital age on our perceptions, focusing on the manipulation during data transfer and conversion. Kum transforms the operation of the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) screens directly to his paintings and argues that the digital technology - which requires a black surface in order to darken the truth first and then reconstructs the desired image – actually presents a reduced, concocted reality. In this sense, digital mechanisms, far from serving our needs, in fact keeps control of us. According to the artist, technology, used in informing and documenting, produces misleading results that carry us further away from the truth.
Digital Darkness probes on the ideas introduced in Kum’s previous show, Format Theory. The portraits in the series point out to the changing roles between the audience and the TV screen, and claims that technology is actually watching people. Technology’s power does not only influence the people of today; it also reshapes the characters and the stories from the past. Kum refers to this situation in his series of ‘authors’ portraits’ that lived before the digital age.
The sculptures explore the beliefs of a generation that descend from the Pagans and critiques not only religious faiths; but also different views on capitalism and Western attitudes toward the East. In his work, Kum does not advocate one absolute truth, but rather aims to reveal and question the dynamics that form the truth itself.
One major commentary of the artist on today’s contemporary art scene is regarding the use of art as a tool for exchange rather than of sharing. The preset conditions, regulated by people who has control of the information systems, lead to the commercialization of art, force artists to produce works that meet the needs of the market, and cause inspection of artists’ ideologies. Art, that is taken as an ‘investment instrument’ and marketed only through its monetary value, in the long term, will cease to be a product of a creative process and lose its right to comment on the society.
Digital Darkness can be seen until March 24th, 2012 at x-ist.
BURHAN KUM İstanbul, 1962
Kum graduated from Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Design Den Bosch (Holland) in 1989. His previous exhibitions at x-ist include Facsimile (2005), Fear versus Fear(2006) and Format Theory (2010). Other group shows and fairs he participated are “Resmen” (Karşı Sanat, 2004), Contemporary Istanbul 06, 07, 09, 10 and 11 “Possibilities, Perceptions and Speculations on Istanbul” (Istanbul, 2008), “Made in Turkey” group show (Frankfurt, 2008), “And...But...Or” (Karşı Sanat, İstanbul, 2008), Art Asia 2008 (Miami, 2008), “Taste of Lust’’ ( Istanbul 2011), ART HK’11 (Hong Kong International Art Fair), VIP Art Fair and Scope Basel 2011.His works were selected for the Sotheby’s 2009 Contemporary Turkish Art Auction in London and Start-2009 (14thEuropean Contemporary Art Fair, Strasbourg, France). In 2010, Kum participated in “Istanbul Cool! What’s Happening in Contemporary Turkish Art Now” at Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery. (New York, USA)
Burhan Kum - Dijital Karanlık // Digital Darkness from x-ist on Vimeo.