‘Invisible Cities’ at Anna Laudel Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Opening today, Anna Laudel Istanbul gallery presents Bilal Hakan Karakaya’s solo exhibition “Invisible Cities.”

Named after the well-known novel Italo Calvino, Karakaya focuses on the rising mega structures in metropolitan life and emphasizes how desolate and unrecognizable the modern cities have become through the art of sculpture.

Visioning abandoned and haunted business centers with a bleak perspective, “Invisible Cities” is a beautiful selection representing detached metropolitan cities with gloomy and mysterious highlights.

Focusing on creating innovative and bold designs that push the boundaries of sculpture using a casting technique with a thousand-year history, Karakaya invites the audience to an unknown universe through the feeling of density and congestion of metropolises.

In his recent works, Karakaya refers to Glenn Albrecht’s concept of “Solastalgia,” a combination of the Latin words for comfort and sadness. A dystopian depiction of urban life challenges the concept of a home, which is reframed as a daunting place that provides inhabitants with an alienated, trapped and imprisoned life in blinding lights.

Described by the artist as “the modern-day equivalent of medieval darkness,” the artworks in this special solo selection create timeless spaces with sculptures that are dynamic or static, hanging between the past and the future that are reminiscent of Plato’s quote: “As above, so below.”

Karakaya’s selection is inspired by the metropolises that have become desolate and unrecognizable during the pandemic. Inspired by urban life, the sculptures of Karakaya prophesy that we would be living in a submerged, dark future within forbidden, dangerous and deadly states. The artist’s works are inspired by business centers, which often turn into ghost towns at night, giving a sense of unreality and uncanny when viewed from a distance.

Karakaya’s three-dimensional visual productions made with materials such as casting techniques, stone, metal and wood are designed to examine how the senses rejected by our minds or the feared phenomena thrown into the subconscious are protected.
The artists find a way to take the viewer on a spiritual journey by taking stories from fairy tales, dreams, or mythical phenomena described in Anatolian or Greek mythology.

Offering a new perspective on urban life, “Invisible Cities” can be visited through May 21.