Perfect Day: Ali Emir Tapan

Galerist is pleased to present Ali Emir Tapan's solo exhibition ‘Perfect Day’ between February 22 - March 23. The exhibition, curated by Haluk Akakçe, showcases the artist's photographs and video alongside sculptures and works on paper which were produced during the last 2 years. The artist's first solo exhibition at Galerist focuses on the notion of ephemeral perfection.

Wrecked cars, acid-etched on mirrors, glass statues sculpted by prolonged exposure to searing heat; each work is marked by violence and possessed by its own story. Tapan presents the viewers with the graceful end-objects originating from processes of violence.

All these objects not only redefine the idea of a ‘perfect day’, of  moment when beauty overwhelms reality, but also reference the idea of temporality underlying perfection found in Lou Reed's song of the same title. He emphasizes the ‘slip/accident’, the potential for change through violence in his works and explains “….even a process that is naturally violent can be applied with grace.” The artist establishes a world where terror and violence become a form of intimacy, and drawing his works from this cosmos, freezes them in a moment of solitude. His video titled ‘Rehearsal’ witnesses countless seagulls await an almost imaginary crescendo, rehearsing to no apparent end in an uncanny aquarium.

Tapan's works appear as in a variety of manifestations around a base idea, hatched through a process of Chinese-whispers. All works end up being conceptual anamorphs of one another.

The artist, refusing to impose upon his works a fixed referential basis, takes a position of chosen ambiguity. The viewer is left to decide upon the exact nature of ‘Perfection’, may it be transformation, enlightenment or suspense.