Rasim Aksan, 1984

Born in 1984, Rasim Aksan completed his undergraduate education at İnönü University before earning an MA from Yeditepe University.

Many of Rasim Aksan’s compositions are of solitary scenes he photographs in daily life—for instance a half-eaten strawberry, a lone cat, or a wilted flower—and their introspective, even clandestine aspect draws special attention. The isolated images don’t belong to a narrative whole, but rather suggest stories that are mysterious, not easily resolvable. Aksan examines various textures and the gradual transformations the subjects go through over time. He visibly deliberates over shapes, textures, and formations rather simply applying fixed thoughts, roles, or relationships.

Aksan closely scrutinizes hands severed from the wholeness of a body. Despite closeness, one can recognize the powerful representation of what has been kept outside the frame. By virtue of the size, the hands evoke an old and tired person who does manual work. Given how they are clasped, we might infer that they are trying to summon strength, and have experienced hardship. As a symbol, the hands represent skill, capability, and power, while can also conveying destruction, damage, and even catastrophe.