Ani Çelik Arevyan - Nothing is as it seems

In the exhibition "Nothing is as it seems", Istanbul Modern Photography Gallery presented works by Ani Çelik Arevyan who has created a novel expressive language derived from everyday objects. The exhibition brought together images composed of simple details of nature and objects, or of their union by Ani Çelik Arevyan who alludes to the unknowability of reality.

Arevyan’s photographs include objects used in everyday life. Through her photographs the artist emphasizes the fact that human beings, nature, and life are all part and parcel of a larger whole which exists only insofar as it permits itself to be visible and as we see, understand, and grasp it. Her aim is not to seek reality and judge it but to enable awareness through her interpretation. Arevyan wants the individual, who is part of the whole consisting of human beings, life, and nature, to think of him- or herself. In her works, she departs sometimes from feelings that we may have to veil, showing us that the shape/situation/state we perceive may not be as it seems. In her photographs, composed of everyday objects shot in completely different surroundings and lighting conditions, the artist points at the fact that whether we look at it close up or from afar, what we look at, see, and experience is not what it seems.

The artist, rendering visible the ideas that surround her and the impressions she has garnered by redesigning and interpreting them, brought together complexity and simplicity in her photographs in the exhibition. The artist aimed to obtain abstract images with 187 garments that she has worn and kept alive for 20 years; though there is no one in them, they are reminiscent of both a person and a silhouette. They look like buildings, views of the city, meteors, or bodies with souls.

Curator: Engin Özendes