Versus Art Project presents SABO’s ‘Time Machine’ exhibition
ISTANBUL
Versus Art Project is hosting Turkish artist SABO’s new exhibition titled “Time Machine,” which is based on the fiction of past, present and future.
The exhibition opening the doors of a journey through time with the help of the artist’s figures can be seen from June 3 till July 10.
We live in days when the concept of time has lost its meaning for many of us and has become blurry. We struggle to be in a “moment” just enough to complain that we cannot catch the time or that time does not pass in any way.
SABO approaches it from this point of view and goes out of that “moment,” looks at the concept of time from a holistic perspective and combines it on a single plane by establishing connections between past, present and future.
SABO’s sketchbooks and drawings are the starting point of the exhibition. Within the scope of the exhibition, the imagination of the artist, who creates a fictional cycle by using pieces from his own life with the aura of time and space, reminds us of the irony of time.
SABO’s artist book, oil and watercolor paintings, as well as ceramics, videos and maps are featured in the exhibition. Notes and texts from the history of humanity are some of the elements that we frequently encounter in SABO’s work. History, past wars, success and failure are among the other themes SABO takes into account and produces around.
The artist’s book “Time Machine,” which is composed of six editions of the artist’s sketches, each prepared by hand and named the exhibition, constitutes the starting point of his works and symbolizes the past-present-future triangle that draws the trajectory of the exhibition. The sketches in the artist’s book, which form the backbone of the series, are also the reference points of the works in the selection.
In the selection of works, the figures lifting fists (Be Back In 10 Minutes), symbolizing victory and the desire to succeed, and tattooed figures (Don’t Give Up The Ship) are works that point to the past in the time capsule. The ceramic work, which establishes a dialogue with tattooed figures, is also included in the exhibition as a discipline in which the artist is producing for the first time. In the last year, when sneezing evolved into different meanings and anxiety in all of us, SABO’s series of people who sneeze (It Sucks To Be You) almost mirrors the present.
The artist’s 10-piece watercolor series features in the exhibition depict different parallel worlds. The names of the works in the series are formed by new name groups that symbolize these parallel worlds, originating from the combination of the names of stars deriving from Arabic and the names of bacteria of Latin origin. The series is accompanied by a video about the works.
While the walking figure in the exhibition appears as a depiction of evolution, the series titled “Boşuna Gitti” expresses the artist’s critical approach to the course of the world, wars, climate crisis and economic problems by establishing a dialogue with the future.
The map study on the fabric, on the other hand, points to this entire time cycle. Instant thoughts, fine lines between reality and fiction, subjective desires and the connections it establishes with the old-new series that greet each other have a great place in SABO’s artistic attitude. He takes the traditional method he has learned off the canvas and goes beyond the picture that the eyes are accustomed to.
Every piece you see is part of a whole, none of them are alone, and they become the best examples of time travel. This journey is not just about going back and coming here. What you see is part of a painting that he will make in the future.
As we can think of the variety of materials and methods in his fiction with reference to the “Common Hall” (2014) exhibition, as well as while remembering the “Paracetamol” (2019) exhibition, we can read the relationship of the artist’s image world with time and the familiar story in the “Time Machine” he left for every looking eye.