SEMA BOYANCI

14 for these new paintings as well… In fact, they may even be considered an intellectual continuation of them… According toBoyancı: “The perception of aesthetics exists in human nature: over the years, with environmental conditions, the training one receives, their visual accumulation, the level of the bar is developed and raised. In the mountains, in the villages, in a corner “shantytown” neighborhood, a woman who doesn’t know how to read or write even makes and effort to beautify the setting in which she lives, and the things which she uses; her toiling is ever present within the scope of her own aesthetic understanding: when she’s sewing her own wedding gown, or adding decorations to the curtains in her home, or when embroidering blue beads on her headscarf or muslin, when she’s adding ornaments to the lace hanging off of her kitchen shelves, etc.” It wouldn’t be possible to proceed at this point without paying homage to Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, from the previous generation, who made paintings from the same vital cultural images. While Bedri Rahmi took rich folk-intuitive motifs and culture from Anatolia and blended this with the artistic arguments of the West, creating his own, unique Anatolian Iconography by transferring it to a canvas with the possibilities of modern art, Sema Boyancı both follows the new traces of the same culture in our current day, and with her stance of establishing an intellectual “assemblage”, takes it to a very different cultural level. As Bedri Rahmi took the typical print molds used by cultures of the Tokat, Çorum region and transferred them onto the surface of canvas in the form of new, original designs, Boyancı doesn’t avoid utilizing the potential yielded by customs settled into artistic culture at a much later time. She creates from those folk cultural sources, a new type of vital, artistic imagery by way of a new contemplation and techniques. In doing so, knowingly or otherwise, she embarks freely on the road of Fluxus artists, modern contemporary artists, and the opposing stance of their position in the technical and aesthetic path through which they pass. As is known, the word, “fluxus” expresses the continuity of nature and human life, change and renewal, and the resistance of stagnation and repetition. In a vibrant and dynamic world which is in a state of continuous change, she develops objections to the perception of the work of art as finished or complete and asserts its continuity, its new aesthetic or an “antique aesthetic”. That is, by removing the notion that such a movement consists purely of “painters” and adding musicians, writers, architects and actors to the mix, she reestablishes it as a continuous process of the production of art. However, while the concerns of Fluxus artists are such that social and vital change and transformation take priority over artistic aesthetic contemplation, Boyancı’s primary concern is for cultural representation, reality and authenticity to be emphasized as vibrant images. But from many aspects, when selecting and classifying both her authentic objects and alienated imagery symbols, she has no reservations positioning herself in close proximity to the intent and reasoning of Fluxus. EKREM KAHRAMAN, December 2018, İstanbul