Özkan Eroğlu
(Priv. -Doz. Dr., Habilitation Schweiz in Philosophie der Kunst)
 
 
If Ozlem Kalkan Erenus were a film director, the name of the film could be "Post-Existence." Her paintings, which render every stage of this existence into indicators throughout their creation stages, aim to simultaneously evaluate the reality and idealism of "existence" within the artist's own way. From the moment we point out the real and ideal, the intellectual concern indicated by every “face” in the paintings presents either reality or idealism. It is immediately apparent that each painting offers a constructional mind as of post-existence. In the following article, we will try to explain the situation, which inclines to integrate real and ideal with constructional statuses. The very same situation works also for convincing the audience towards this tendency.
 
"Every face is a trail, every trail is a sign." So logic suggests that every face is a sign. Here, while asking what a “face” is, another entirely different situation emerges: Everything that exists in the world of phenomena has a face. Then, as a representation of existence, those faces can be expanded in time and can be related to a flow. It can even be argued that this flow brings out a thought of a cinematographic dimension.
 
Now, let's start moving slowly from the general judgment and approach the matter of Özlem Kalkan Erenus’ painting, which closely relate to this judgment. First, let's examine the judgment of "every face is a trail".  The definition of "face" we use here could be the face of anything. However, in her paintings, it comes to be the face of humans and nature. It is quite obvious that those faces have been subject to utter abstraction. The volume of the abstraction is not changed much, but some changes are put forward by changing the color perception of the abstraction over the light and shadows. And it can be thought as different statuses of the subject "faces". We see the meaning of reality and ideals in the sense of the artist's perception of light and dark in the context of psychological interpretation on the surface of the works.
 
A "face" can qualify; even quantify a thing within the flow of time. The thought of cinematography comes into play again if this flow of time is considered similar to the flow of a film. This flow can or cannot be managed by someone (the artist). Then, the flow in point may give rise to two possible outcomes: controlled and uncontrolled. Therefore, we cannot say that the artist has behaved in a very controlled way in the flow on those paintings, because control would prevent the expression of idealism and points of reality that are hidden in the details of the "face." So, by disabling such prevention, we have no doubt that the artist desperately wants to create a "face-trail" relationship between herself and the painting’s surfaces by attracting the audience to the hidden corners to a relationship of view-space. We can say that every "trail" starts to be a "sign" from that moment on. The "faces” offered are sourced from absolute experiences as representations of the existence of those experiences. Actually, right at that point, we must also draw attention to the presence of an intellectually supported psychology. That is the reason why the "faces" make the artist expose them side by side and one under the other. Because all the people creating the world of phenomena offer such plurality and variety, each person even shows herself as a part of a plurality and as a richness of phenomena.  In this context, since every "face" represents an existence, it becomes the existence itself. This existence acts in the flow/time that is designed for it. This action situation has the status of existence and post-existence. The type of existence happens in the mind, while the state of post-existence happens at the time and place of the exhibition. 
 
The paintings almost definitely present the two abovementioned states over all those phenomena: "existence" and "post-existence". While "existence" is being open to the other being(s) through another being and doing it at a time and a space, "post-existence" is a state of interpretation of the matter in a different space with different beings by including the audience and sharing. In my opinion, Özlem Kalkan Erenus’s exhibition and every exhibition after this one – as long as the theme is the "face" of an existence – will always signify a state of "post-existence." That is why those exhibitions will not stop self-constructing and indicating some realities and ideals, will be continuous somehow and will make themselves known. This could be seen as setting sail for a new language ontologically. Since the artist thinks in layers through her paintings – in other words, since she accepts each one of her paintings as part of a Cartesian multiplication – inevitably in the reality of the flow of the time, she feels to the urge to make those ontological determinations and will continue to feel so.
 
Previously, I said the artist offers a kind of intellectuality. In this context, it is very obvious that the artist presents a thought through each of her paintings. Then, in a way, those thoughts also create the armory of her intellect. Charles Sanders Pierce’s judgment the "every thought is an indication" comes to mind and can be combined with the judgment we emphasized above. "Then, every sign becomes a representation of a thought from the moment it becomes an indicator." Therefore, we cannot define the artist’s paintings as only visual portraits. They deserve to be intellectual representations too. The artist’s most certain effort when putting forward existence(s) through her paintings and relating the audience with them is the proposition of "existences." The audience almost feels obligated to face with the states presented by those "existences" and to engage in an intellectual acquisition. But this, in a way, resembles pushing someone who cannot swim into the water in order to teach them how to swim. In other words, everything is for the person in front of the artist. From the moment the paintings are presented as an existence through face/s and the audience is involved in them, an idealist initiative can now be activated. Here, by speaking a composite language that is simultaneously both real and ideal, it quite clearly shows again the existence of an artist who is willing to search for new roads in ontological terms.
 
Every painting emerged, almost make an object proposal, from there the absolute relationship between those objects and "I" becomes undeniable. It should be emphasized that those paintings that are our starting point continue to be presented as the realities and ideals of "I." Most importantly, "I" is presented in the forms of ones own "faces", "trails", "signs" and "thoughts." This is just another way of presenting the aforementioned objects and their relationships with their existences once again. We should be reminded that reality and ideals of everyday problems are hidden in those relations.
 
As a result, the artist tries to create a discussion in our minds between the real and the ideal over the faces that appear on the surface of her paintings. From the moment we start relating to such discussion, we think that we have found some things that rather than being fictive and metaphysical, are physical and not entirely fictive. This could be defined as a new "ontological anxiety basis." I am talking about the state of having the artist and the conscious audience brought onto the same platform. We can call it an effort of presenting the audience with the "states of existences" by using "states of perception." We must say that experimentalism is not held back but put forward on the surface of every painting, big or small, at the same time. What I mean to say is the paintings can be seen as part of a pool of experimentalism and the audience feels free to take whatever they want from that pool. For this reason, the distinction we make between "existence" and "post-existence" is essential for Özlem Kalkan Erenus and her paintings. From there, the artist wants to merge "existence" and "post-existence" just like she wants to merge the real and the ideal.
 
-English Translation: Nilüfer Akın-
 
(Written by Özkan Eroğlu for the catalog "The Trail of Time” that accompanies an exhibition by Özlem Kalkan Erenus, which will be opened at the Prof. Dr. Yusuf Vardar MÖTBE Cultural Centre Art Gallery, Ege University, March 4-21, 2014.)