“Nothing is as it seems”

İstanbul Modern Photography Gallery is hosting the exhibition ‘Nothing Is as It Seems’ by Ani Çelik Arevyan who has created a novel expressive language derived from everyday objects. In the show curated by Engin Özendes, Ani Çelik Arevyan alludes to the unknowability of reality. The exhibition opens on September 29, 2010 and runs through January 9, 2011.

The show includes a chain of interpretations composed of spare details of nature and objects, or of their union. Through her photographs the artist emphasizes the fact that human beings, nature, and life are all part and parcel of a larger whole which exists only insofar as it permits itself to be visible and as we see, understand, and grasp it. Her aim is not to seek reality and judge it but to enable awareness through her interpretation.
Arevyan notes that she wants the individual, who is part of the whole consisting of human beings, life, and nature, to think of him- or herself: “Sometimes we may have to ‘veil our feelings; sometimes our joy, sometimes our sorrows. Just like veiling oneself. In fact it is precisely at this point that what we see, what others show us and the shape/situation/state we perceive may not be as it seems.”

In her photographs, composed of everyday objects shot in completely different surroundings and lighting conditions, Ani Çelik Arevyan shows us that “whether we look at it close up or from afar, what we look at, see, and experience is not what it seems.”

The exhibition’s curator Engin Özendes points out that today the creations of contemporary artists are nourished by everyday life and social and political phenomena and sometimes they also produce what they wish to present by using ordinary objects. Özendes adds that “Ani Çelik Arevyan’s photographs include objects used in everyday life. In the photographs of Arevyan’s abstract and minimalist exhibition there are both complexity and simplicity. Though everything actually seems to be familiar, the use of a different kind of interpretation has created a different kind of expression. Arevyan’s works are formed of visuals of a chain of interpretations created through the union of nature and objects. Each spectator can interpret it as he or she wishes.”

Understanding what is seen rests within the individual himself or herself
Noting that the images come together and complement each other to recreate a whole, Ani Çelik Arevyan adds “what we see or what we make publically available may not be as they seem, as a consequence of the positioning and contrapositioning of the unseen lying within the whole. Understanding what is seen rests, in all its simplicity or complexity, within the individual himself or herself.”

Mentioning that the exhibition photographs also have this simplicity and complexity, Arevyan expresses the following idea: “Images that are complex on the one hand, and on the other spare, simple, and clear. The forms of the objects that I use may appear to be similar, but, like the people we are, they are not. They may seem to be repeating themselves, but, as in real life, they do not. However, as is true with people in real life, they do reveal a certain persistence.”

Because everyone has their own point of view, their own opinion on what is right, their own reality, something that seems wrong for one person may seem meaningful and true to another. In her photographs the artist reflects the positioning and contrapositioning of the unseen through the oppositions between one side and the other, between harmony and discord, and through movement.

Arevyan states: “I render visible the ideas that surround me and the impressions I have garnered by redesigning and interpreting them.” The garments which she has worn and kept alive for 20 years, though there is no one in them, are reminiscent of both a  person and a silhouette. The 187 garments in the exhibition “are not as they seem;” they become abstract images, they look like buildings, views of the city, meteors, or bodies with souls.

Arevyan states that she brings parts together to create a larger whole: “In a way it’s what life is about. Isn’t living the same? Throughout our lives don’t we bring together details to form a larger picture, a “whole”…”

Bubbles are the last statement of the exhibition

She indicates that her photographs present a different interpretation, a different point of view: “Actually everything is familiar! But they are interpreted in a different way, in other words nature is as we know it, trees are not shocking pink with rectangular branches nor do clouds have corners. I see what is visible in a different way.”

“Bubbles” are, in a sense, the last statement of the exhibition. “Like them, it seems as if colour, form and light constantly change. Their weightlessness and their heaviness exist one moment, and cease to be the next. They are not quite what they seem to be … like real life … just like the way we see things…”