Cloud Gatherer - THE BIG PICTURE

The Big Picture, UDRH 70th Year Exhibition @DEPO

Curator: Zeynep Özatalay

"Better to light a candle than curse the darkness."

The Big Picture is an illusion. To reserve this world of ambiguousness, standing together to remind and to raise hope while keeping producing is the best answer.

I painted this picture after I was inspired by a photograph taken by Fatoş (Irven). Having spent her childhood in Sur, Fatoş had taken some pictures after the blocade was removed. In one of these pictures, there was a concrete block placed before one of the narrow streets of Sur it was there standing so no one could enter that street. I was so surprised when I saw it. What surprised me was how exhaustive it should have been to carry such a heavy block there. What was this effort for?

Now Fatoş is in prison in the city where she was born and raised Cloud Gatherer. Fatoş stares at the sky. She listens to the migratory birds that I tell her about in my letters.