Spare a moment to imagine young tree shoots sprouting, flowers blooming, the transformation of butterflies, birds setting off on migrations along the best routes, insect larvae appearing just in time to nourish hungry new hatchlings… All these phenomena point to invariable periodic events in biological life cycles. Derived from the Greek word phainō meaning ‘to show, bring to light, make to appear’, phenology is concerned with the recurrent cycles in natural events; nature’s unique schedule determined by seasonal variations.

In this regard, phenology is the study of natural sciences based on faunal and floral observations, dealing with all forms of natural reality independent of human thought. Investigating how various non-human species react to external stimuli has become increasingly important considering our planet’s changing ecological conditions. This extraordinary calendar helps botanists and zoologists keep track of changes and biodiversity. In an ecological sense, it plays a role in determining our choices, thoughts and actions during our lifetimes, yet it also provides observable, concrete and objective data, both on personal and social levels. 

Phenological changes create patterns, mechanisms and landscapes in nature which we have the ability to notice, observe, feel and, through interpretation, transform into art construed on the emerging concepts of time, effort, patience, detail and admirable beauty.

Picturing humans sharing the planet with other beings as part of nature rather than its master, we could then talk about the cyclicality of the concept of time; that patience might be a feeling of trust in the probabilities beheld by time. We could refer to effort, which embodies continuity and consistency, as a concept probably as old as time and patience. And as a consequence, the visible transforms into fascinating and magical things that contain infinite details.

Rooted in our obsession with feeling, observing, understanding and digesting nature’s rhythm, the concept of patience contains details achieved only with effort and a tranquil moment in time. Patience may at first seem like inertia in nothingness, but it is a concentrated form of resistance and power for essence and being. Is patience not to keep on flowing while maintaining a sense of yourself rather than being a bearer of plight like the legendary Patience Stone? And if we slow down our pace, hold up a lens and feel, can we establish some form of dialogue with the things that have been waiting patiently to be noticed?

*Though the quote has been attributed to prominent intellectuals of the 20th century, Bertrand Russell and W. B. Yeats, the original statement appears in English poet and author Eden Phillpotts’ 1918 book ‘A Shadow Passes’.

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Ahmet Duru

Living quietly on the roadside, in our gardens, in distant forests, on the neighbour’s balcony or in our living rooms, plants have sensory systems that defy imagination. Animals can choose their homes and mates, walk miles to find food and shelter, and fend off attacks. Plants are stationary and continue to develop in the face of difficulties and changing seasons with sophisticated strategies using nothing more than light and water.

“ … An elm tree has to know if its neighbour is shading it from the sun so that it can find its own way to grow toward the light that’s available. A head of lettuce has to know if there are ravenous aphids about to eat it up so that it can protect itself by making poisonous chemicals to kill the pests. A Douglas fir tree has to know if whipping winds are shaking its branches so that it can grow a stronger trunk… “ 

Daniel Chamovitz, What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses, 2012

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1.Four Seasons, Oil on Canvas, 30 x 20 cm each, 2019
2.Apple, Aquarelle on Paper, 14.5 x 10 cm, 2021
3.Silent Spring, Oil on Canvas, Diam. 130 cm, 2021

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Ali Ibrahim Öçal

Mountains are where the sun and the moon, light and dark, the heavens and earth meet. Mountains weigh down the ground; they belong down here on earth by nature, yet equally up above by deed. A unity that brings together the soaring might of the mountains and the movement of the abysmal seas briefly invites us to become the subject of two spectacles which is a pleasure to look at, even knowing that it will not last long. At this point on the planet where we convene, coordinates 41°03’08.6”N, 28°59’27.6”E to be precise, a mountain resonating with its cliffs and forests meets a rippling sea with its creatures and myths.

1. 41°03’08.6”N, 28°59’27.6”E, Cement, Sand, Pigment, Plaster, Water, Variable Dimensions, Performance piece, 05.06 – 08.06.2021
2. Skin of the Sea II, Oil on Canvas, 125x 250 cm, 2017

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Ayşe Gül Süter

 The inspiration for the Microspheres series originates from the artist’s residency at the IRB Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute. Scientists working in Histopathology Laboratories develop their claims based on their observations on tissue samples taken from healthy and unhealthy organs (such as liver, eye, skin or lung) under a microscope. The subtle visual variations between healthy and unhealthy tissue make it possible for researchers to make diagnoses. Interestingly, the main forms observed in the visual data are always round/spherical. Microspheres focuses on our sensory experiences with a glass installation that uses light, forms and colours. It creates an imaginary space constructed with light under strong rays of the summer sun. Whether it is in the case of plants, animals, humans, bacteria, cells, or plankton, it is a reminder of one of the most fundamental requirements of life: light. By establishing a dialogue between space, light and the audience, mirror sculptures position light as a travelling and shapeshifting invisible entity that also alters and transforms the images we perceive. The video turns the lens on the spherical forms of human cells seen in microscopic images, reminiscent of images familiar from Google Earth or drone flights, and it evokes the possibility that micro-worlds and macro-views resemble each other and even exist within each other.

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Ayrı Pano

“But when we see how the branching of trees resembles the branching of arteries and the branching of rivers, how crystal grains look like soap bubbles and the plates of a tortoise shell, how the fiddle-heads of ferns, stellar galaxies, and water emptying from the bathtub spiral in a similar manner, then we cannot help but wonder why nature uses only a few kindred forms in so many different contexts. Why do meandering snakes, meandering rivers and loops of string adopt the same pattern, and why do cracks in mud and markings on a giraffe arrange themselves like films in a froth of bubbles?”

Peter S. Stevens, Patterns in Nature, 1974

1. Microspheres, Glass Installation, 2021
2. Flight Above Human Cells, Video, 4’00 ”,2020
3. Sphere, Custom Designed Glass and Glass Paint, Diameter 80 cm,2021
4. Refracted Light 1, Custom Designed Glass and Glass Paint, 190 x 79 cm, 2021
5. Refracted Light 2, Custom Designed Glass and Glass Paint, 190 x 79 cm, 2021

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Dikine Ongoing Project

“Take no more than fits into your hand. (Or) imagine a warm embrace with both arms. In fact, bear the load on your back. Join forces with others and drag it. Fence it off if it won’t budge. Stack and then climb to the top, elevate; empty your pockets. Staying put is as much of an action as going places. Stories about not going anywhere are aplenty. This is no secret, neither is it the truth; this is a mass in its own sphere and its validity depends on mobility. These are the experiences of those “faster” than you. If you lose your way in the cycle, you will find it in your ruins. Assuming you have reached the theme of emptiness, you shall not need anything else. Togetherness does not guarantee unity; rather it is the existence of non-existence – annihilation is what brings us together.”

Manifesto, 2019

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Object and Repetition 

 “Take a look at your bones to grasp expectance and omission. Migration routes flowing through the sequence of spinal discs are drawn on the rocks of the earth, the caves of the marrow. Follow in the footsteps of the snail. Where no one gets a share and nothing belongs to anyone.” 2021

Fist-sized spheres made from shreds of old newspaper are lined up on a rope like beads on a rosary and installed inside the space. A question emerges: What connects repetitions? While the production of the spheres continues at the workstations, the concepts of discontinuity, transience and displacement are exposed in the motion between the two rooms of the exhibition space. Due to their nature, the transformation of materials at the stations happens in real time. In the indirect orbit of the movement of silence, of the dialogue between movement and space and material, one tracks down the knowledge passing through the memory of the spine. 

After the performer leaves the exhibition space, the video repository covering the long-term performance is conveyed through the sequence of materials and their projection on the memory of the space. On certain days, the performer will make remote live connections to project images that map out real / hyper-real spaces merging with the spheres. Following the footsteps across the map of migration, the images will meet again in the void.  

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Melis Buyruk

They are the carriers of disease and death, the greedy commensal and incorrigible marauders of food in our cellars. The uninvited lodgers of attics, basements, sewers, and alleys. They are like thoughts in flight, prowling around the labyrinths of our minds; like uncanny shadows that follow us discreetly. Our fugitive neighbours aboard ships, the confidants of our drawers that we dare not show anyone. Equipped with an incredibly sharp set of teeth, they can gnaw at bricks, wood, or lead; add a dash of courage, and they can even set free an elephant trapped in a net. They possess the most astonishing means of survival, resisting bravely the relentless attacks of mammals, birds and reptiles. Mice can be very intuitive when it comes to curiosity and coexisting in harmony. 

*** 

The frog-headed Heqet is one of the fertility goddesses of ancient Egypt. Our first encounter with water is in the mother’s womb and Heqet is associated with the flooding of the Nile, the germination of crops and the final stages of birth. Popping their heads out of the water and leaping onto land, the amphibians begin their polyphonic chorus, ripping apart the heavy veil of darkness, seemingly celebrating life in water and on land with exuberant songs. There is a unique frog species that literally freezes during the winter; only to come back to life with the arrival of spring.

***

From above ground to down below, from existence to extinction, from light to dark, down holes; they are found in crevices, passages and thresholds. Timid and restless, dashing about as if late for an appointment. Though they have long been prey to jackals and wolves, snakes, eagles, and humans; they reproduce with the same haste in almost every corner of the earth. They then appear in fairy tales in the role of the weird and strange. Apparently, a little white rabbit sitting next to the tree of life on the moon had been embroidered on the dress of an 18th century Chinese royalty. Legend has it that, bathing in moonlight, rabbits sip the elixir of immortality from a goblet while whispering people the secrets of life, production and renewal.

1. Frog, Porcelain, 18 K Gold Luster Decorated, 20 cm x 21 cm, 2021
2. Rabbit, Porcelain, 18 K Gold Luster Decorated, 35 x 44 cm, 2021
3. Mouse, Porcelain, 18 K Gold Luster Decorated, 31 x 22 cm 2021

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Sadık Arı

“In the marshes the buckbean has lifted its feathery mist of flower spikes above the bed of trefoil leaves. The fimbriated flowers are a miracle of workmanship and every blossom exhibits an exquisite disorder of ragged petals finer than lace. But one needs a lens to judge their beauty: it lies hidden from the power of your eyes, and menyanthes must have bloomed and passed a million times before there came any to perceive and salute their loveliness. The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”

Eden Philpotts, A Shadow Passes

1. Pillage, Ink on Paper, 67 x 91 cm, 2014
2. Untitled, Ink on Paper, 67 x 91 cm, 2018
3. Untitled, Ink on Paper, 25,5 x 60,5 cm, 2021

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With thanks to

Curator: Sezgi Abalı
Exhibition Coordinator: Bahar Güneş
Catalogue Content and Parallel Event Programme: Murat Alat
Communications: Hazal Paftalı
Exhibition Design and Execution: Tetrazon
Graphic Design: Busy İstanbul
Poster Illustration: Hande Koçhan
Photography and Video Documentation: Orhan Cem Çetin
Translations: Selçuk ve Özge Somersan
Press Relations: Flint Culture
Logistics: Fiksatif
Administrative Management: Tuğba Turan
Exhibition Steward: Ahmet Çağrı Karadeniz