EXHIBITIONS / PAST / ID:LA CITY & IT'S REFLECTIONS

INSTALLATION

TEXT

In a series of images which the artist captures as she wanders through the streets of the city and documents its signage through a systematic photographic approach that is uniquely her own, Ulay reveals the evidence of “the present” with all of its repetitions, similarities, discards, and current purposings. As she does so, the otherwise sharp distinction between “a city” and “every city” becomes increasingly blurred: the signals that her photographs reveal begin to point to a completely different, inner space of their own. This is a space that has a self-consistent language, a fraught backstory, and intrinsic connections that all need to be considered in their own right.

The presentation of the images in this show confronts the viewer as an additional dimension of their content. The variability, ephemerality, and vulnerability of urban surfaces and volumes are reflected in the photographic prints pinned to the walls of the exhibition venue: the exhibition technique echo the way the city mounts its own “natural” exhibition.

A graphic designer by education, Ayşe Ulay has always taken a special interest in typography and sign systems, in fashioned objects, and in text-based applications. Through her photography she repeatedly interrogates their place, their cultural idiosyncrasies, and their underlying social dynamics in the urban landscape.

Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1958, Ayşe Ulay is a graduate of the İstanbul Academy of Fine Arts and holds a second bachelor’s degree in illustration and painting from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Ulay’s work has appeared in numerous publications in Turkey and the United States. Working with both digital and traditional media in the fields of art and graphic design, Ulay has participated in group exhibitions held at Silicon Gallery (Philadelphia), Siggraph (Los Angeles & Orlando), Seybold (San Francisco), Macworld (Boston), Opts Art Gallery (San Francisco), and Sleeth Gallery (Wesleyan College, WV).

The exhibition organized by Bülent Erkmen was at the Milli Reasürans Art Gallery between January 22 and March 15, 2014.

WORKS

BOOK

ISBN 978-605-4382-15-6

Editorial Concept and Book Design Bülent Erkmen
Texts Cem Akaş, Esra Özdoğan
Translation Robert Bragner
Prepress Barış Akkurt, BEK
Organization Millî Reasürans Sanat Galerisi
Printed by MAS Matbaacılık

WARNING

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PRESS