Bahadır Baruter, whom we have always dubbed "a cartoonist", will manifest a completely different aspect with his digital painting and videos in his upcoming exhibition, "Your Family Is A Lie, Dear", at x-ist between September 13 - October 13, 2012. The artist, with his witty outlook and ironic approach holds the mirror to his audience by addressing the notion of family, one of the deepest taboos in the society, with all its concealed truths.
According to Baruter, solitude justifies family as its most proper cover. Family is an illusion of happiness, built with the belief that individuals can only exist together. It can subjugate one with forced smiles and requisite relationships unlike the positive image reflected for the sake of other people's perceptions. Organic ties break if held on too strong, wiping out the individual for the sake of unity. Baruter, who has a counter stance to family, portrays the concept by combining different styles.
In point of fact, each work is a daily scene blended with dark humor. There are no happy family dinner tables or embraced children in this exhibition, unlike the expectations. While saying "Your family is a lie" Baruter aims to expose our own lies, recreates the family portraits by editing the pretense; inviting the audience for an introspective look. He questions the reality of seemingly warm, cosy and safe moments and searches for normalcy. He does not aspire to impose his own truth but to reveal the problems of the accepted.
x-ist cordially invites all art aficionados to Baruter's exhibition, "Your Family Is A Lie, Dear", tech-sponsored by Elektromak.
BAHADIR BARUTER
Ankara, 1963
After completing his fine arts education in Mimar Sinan University, Fine Arts Faculty, Baruter started his career as a caricaturist when he was 27 years old and worked for several humor magazines. He had his first solo show, "Existence Anxiety" in 2007 at x-ist. The artist is the co-founder of the weekly humor magazine Penguen where he has been working as an editor and a drawer since 2002.
Bahadır Baruter, "Senin Ailen Bir Yalan Yavrum" "Your Family Is A Lie, Dear" from x-ist on Vimeo.