Historic Meeting of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot Artists in Gotland
The Art Exhibition - Asik Mene
(Page updated August 3, 1999)
Asik Mene
I was born in 1955. What happened to me is
not very important. When I was a child, whenever I sensed the
smell of blood and sweat my soul went mad. A dark star was my
homeland I was sent to earth, to free water which would carry me
as a dark object far away from the sun with super cosmic threads
in space. Leaving my paintings behind, I want my last farewell to
be as quiet as my life.
The continuous flow of our lives in our minds makes the comprehension of present time impossible. That's why our thoughts and dreams are concentric. Reality that art is based on is just like the wind. To be able to catch this movement, the continuous transformation in my drawings, I do not fix my figure in yesterday, today or tomorrow, but in complete timelessness.
Whenever I feel that I perceive I rush myself into that non-dimensional and timeless hell where plastic transformations comes true. I re-create reality as a main way and then I melt it away. When the efforts of deformation come to the end of their adventure and become unbearable, ascension replaces the way, the original reality of existence. From then on I bring my work to its initial state. In this period reality is transformed into a new dimension. After living a hellish adventure, carrying the dirt and reidue of time, it then becomes an ecstasy that has the characteristics of birth, growth and exhaustion simultaneously.
When I talk about a changing point of time I mean that I always have an aim; that my art cannot be consumed by repetitive observation. I want every spot that becomes an image in my painting to be able to invite free associations or ideas just like a tuning fork. Relating to this, I believe painting is a kind of energy: an energy that marks the truth about everything reflected in my paintings judges as forgettable and unforgettable at the same time. Looking from another point of view, my art should be an imaginary world that will connect the lifestyle and outery of the anguished Mediterranean people, who were not able to possess the qualities and identity of a contemporary society.
As a result, if the plastic I am trying to analyze, in surface and volume, transforms into a work of art, it should be open to free associations and re-creation. When I re-view my completed painting, I see a kind of conspiracy against the soul. I never find it difficult to find a theme for my painting, because deep inside ourselves there are always many sleeping beauties we aren't aware of, waiting for a touch, a sound, a word to wake up.
1955
First look at world in Larnaka.
1973
Admittance to N. Gural's workshop at the Istanbul State Academy
of Fine Arts.
1976-77
Certificate of study; London Tate Gallery, National Portrait,
Co-Exhibitions in Harbiye City Theatre, Istanbul Artists'
Association, Istanbul Ataturk Cultural Centre, Istanbul Cumali
Art Gallery, Urart Art Gallery.
1982
Graduation from Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts (MA Degree).
1987
Exhibition by Graduates of Fine Art Academy in AKM, Lefkosa.
1987-89
2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th State Painting - Sculpture Exhibitions.
1988
First Solo Exhibition / Award in 3rd State Painting-Sculpture
Exhibitions.
1989
Second Solo Exhibition, Fluxus Art Gallery, Lefkosa.
1990
Drawing Exhibition by Three Artists at Fluxus Art Gallery,
Lefkosa. International Erotic Art Exhibition, AKM Lefkosa / Award
in the 5th State Painting-Sculpture Exhibition.
1991
Exhibition, Contemporary Turkish Cypriot Painting in London /
Exhibition by Turkish Cypriot Artists in Ankara, Ordu / Award in
the 6th State Painting-Sculpture Exhibition.
1992
3rd Solo Exhibition at Fluxus Art Gallery / Award in the 7th
State Painting-Sculpture Exhibition.
1993
4th Solo Exhibition at HP Gallery / Award in the 7th State
Painting-Sculpture Exhibition / Brush Strokes Across Cultures 1st
Exhibition at HP Gallery.
1994
5th Solo Exhibition at AKM, Lefkosa, Organised by Vision Artists'
Centre.
Photo: Mart Marend / Mare Balticum