"The Pothole" is the 5th solo exhibition of Ekin Saclioglu at x-ist. Saclioglu, who, in her previous exhibitions, questioned the reliability of memory and recollections and the relationship between dream and reality, has sometimes been inspired by a memory of her own or a story that belongs to a friend, has called attention to what is social through personal situations, builds her last exhibition on the idea of a pothole that is located on her way back home. This hole she passes by every day turns into a big hole story over time, encompassing all the holes and including both pleasant fictional realms and fears regarding reality.
The dreams and thoughts of Saclioglu regarding the hole vary constantly from a split due to an earthquake to fantastic underground towns, from a pothole that appears out of a blue to a dangerous municipal hole, from antique treasures found during excavations to unknown corpses that are also found during excavations.
The dream of eccentric beings living in underground towns is shattered by the reality of perishing in a municipal hole. On the other hand, the worry regarding the fall of a passerby cat into the hole is alleviated by the dream of the journey of the very same cat to the inner core of the earth.
Although the exhibition originates from the idea of hole, we do not encounter with the representation of the hole via image. We do not see the picture of the hole, but the deliberations on it, and the existence of an affective and mental show-down with it.
All pieces in this exhibition -the canvas paintings, the paper arts, and the three- dimensional objects- revolve around this big and layered hole. In some of these pieces, there emerges a fantasy, still in others a social criticism that is beyond the idea of carrying a message or the reality of the scary underground world.
We realize that the curiosity of Saçlıoğlu about "the visible and the things behind it” subsists in this exhibition of hers.
"The Pothole" - a world that grows out of the hologram mosaics, man-made skeletons whose authenticity is unquestionable, authentic animal skulls that are assumed to be man-made, remaining coins of a non-existent civilization, a few pieces of a newspaper, giant pictures, mini patterns, and the dualism of the fiction and reality- awaiting for you between November 22nd and December 15th.
Ekin Saçlıoğlu, Çukur // Pothole from x-ist on Vimeo.