Karkadé
October 02 – October 19, 2024
Emel Kurhan’s new one-person exhibition Karkadé will take place at Ark Kültür from October 2nd to October 19th, 2024. The opening will be on Wednesday, October 2nd, between 18.30-20.30. Ark Kültür is located at Batarya Street No. 2 in Cihangir.
Named after the sweet and sour Karkadé tea made from hibiscus leaves and widely consumed in Egypt, the exhibition presents Emel Kurhan’s most personal and intimate work.
“I began creating this series inspired by an old photograph taken in 1985. A Kodak photo from a summer I spent in Cairo, posing with my grandmother, father, and sister. Over time, the colors have significantly faded; it’s worn and aged. My memories have been anchored in my mind to the memories of plants, insects and objects. Certain scenes appear before my eyes: feeding strawberries to the last two surviving Koi fish in the garden pond, on the advice of my grandmother; shadow puppets we made with our hands; a praying mantis hidden among the leaves; oleanders; the moths and the imaginary butterflies playing under the light of the old lamp at home; insects I had invented in my mind that weren’t real; the morning light glistening in the swimming pool… I realize that I abstracted and simplified the things left in my mind from that exhausting and transformative summer. Simplified not just to make them agreeable, but to appreciate them, to respect their remembrance… The only thing that remains unchanged in my mind, resisting time, is the tart taste of Karkadé tea.”
This exhibition, which brings together pieces from Emel Kurhan’s ongoing series since 2018 — some of which have been shown in Paris and Turin — will be accompanied by the artist’s first monograph titled The Snail and the Butterfly. Karkadé marks Kurhan’s eighth one-person exhibition in collaboration with Öktem Aykut.
