Türkçe
Batıkan B. Bostancı is a young artist who loves to research and experiment. He nurtures his art with passion. He sees the “magical power” he sensed in art since his childhood, as a source of motivation that always excites him. We had a pleasant interview with the artist, where you can be a guest in the world of a young artist, from the beginning of his career to his future plans.
When did your interest in art begin?
I remember drawing pictures when I was very young. I used to draw mustaches on photographs in the newspaper and scribble earrings on the ears. I used to draw human figures, animals, and houses on blank paper. In primary school, my favorite lesson was arts and crafts. In those classes, I would find myself completely focused. After a while, my drawings started to be hung on the classroom board, and the proliferation of my drawings on the board led me to draw even more. This caused me to focus my attention on painting. I grew up in a family that was more or less involved with art. My mother used to paint oil paintings on canvas for hobby purposes. My father had an advertising workshop. In my non-school days, I would gladly go to help, fill in the letters that the brush masters made, with thick brushes, and try not to overflow them. It was during this period that I realized my technical dexterity. Our family situation must have guided my brother and me because each of us aimed at a career in fine arts. Luckily, we were able to get the full support of our family. I was 9-10 years old when my brother entered the preparation process for fine arts high school. It was during these years that I started to paint consciously. Drawing books were bought for preparation for our house. In those years, I learned to measure with a pencil and started to make reproductions of master painters.
You are a sculpture graduate, but you take your sculpture and painting studies together. What is the connection between painting and sculpture for you?
Years ago, I read an article written by a pedagogue. He explained that adults focus on the emotions, feelings, and reflexes they experienced in the 0-6 age range during their childhood when making decisions. I want to answer this question based on this information…
In my illiterate infancy and pre-school childhood, the drawings that I made as a result of scribbling with a sincere reflex would arouse a feeling of magical power in me. Years later, I met sculptures as a result of actually feeling this magical power. During my high school years, I tasted modeling with mud and started to shape my future plans. Sculpture modeling is actually like drawing a painting. The difference between them is to perceive the sculpture as if you are painting from every angle in order to analyze it. In essence, 3D analysis can be perceived as the interlacing of 2D planes. I found myself in a period when I mostly made sculptures, but I never stopped painting. As the pedagogue said, every time I come to the decision-making stage, I always go back to my childhood, I always want to paint.
What topics do you often cover in your work?
Art, which has undertaken many functions throughout history, has always reflected the characteristics of the period it belongs to. In my interpretation, art in its simplest form is the expression of emotions and storytelling. I can base my own style and art on these two foundations. I cannot measure my ability to observe, but I am someone who likes to observe. I process the frozen states of feelings that are formed by the intensity of emotions such as instant mood changes, sadness, joy, and ambition, and I examine them through figures, I aim to give meanings to them. For example, while in one of my works, I am describing the capture of people by money, in another work I deal with the deformations of the power of people. Sometimes I isolate myself in an imaginary environment and look at the city with binoculars…
You are an artist who likes to seek out and experiment with different materials. What kind of materials do you use in your sculptures? Is there a connection between the material selection and the subject?
Before starting a new job, I more or less form an idea. Although the initial idea is more concentrated and shaped during the production phase, my narrative develops through a starting point.
Sometimes I can get help from the materials in order to explain the subject. If I had to give an example; In a process where I focused on the concept of entropy, I covered newspaper clippings on a series of sculptures that I modeled with mud and turned into polyester, due to the fact that newsprint papers are unstable against sunlight due to their structure. As the days passed, I observed that the writings were fading and becoming meaningless. After all, that’s what ‘Entropy’ meant. My initial idea became more meaningful thanks to the material… These days, I model my sculptures with colored pulp. For my paintings, colorless plastic paints are put into the pigment and glue-like liquid to increase their durability, and for the colors, I am making a mixture of paints by adding an adhesive. I think knowing the chemistry of materials helps me improve my technique. When I focus on a concept, I find myself getting help from materials.
Do you have a method or any warning that you apply specifically that triggers your creativity? How do you spend your days?
I listen to music, books, or podcasts during production. The ‘Folds of My Mind’ series published by Serdar Kuzuloğlu and the podcasts called Struggle’ published by different people do not tire me while working, they have simple and fluent narratives. I like to listen to lectures about subjects such as physics, science and history, or if I’m low on mood, I like to listen to loud music to increase my motivation and increase my energy. I find myself dancing and then tinkering with things. We are in a period of closure. For over a year, everyone has been spending more time with themselves. Almost all of the activities I did before the pandemic has changed. Since the number of people I can get together with when I want is limited, I mostly limit myself to activities that I can do at home. I watch movies, series, concerts, and videos on Youtube. I also do not neglect to play games from time to time. After the pandemic, I plan to take my tent and escape to nature for a while…
You worked as an assistant at Bahadır Baruter’s workshop for 1 year in 2015, and you continue to work at İrfan Önürmen’s workshop since 2016. How did/does it go for you? What did being next to these two valuable artists mean to you?
It is obvious that both artists have pioneering ideas and skills in their respective fields. I would like to state that I feel lucky in terms of the artists I assisted. They helped me understand how important work discipline is, as well as my talent and outlook on life. Bahadır Baruter’s fascinating style of the digital world, and İrfan Önürmen’s versatile material and technical knowledge, practical intelligence, and simplification by dealing with different disciplines in their simplest form and transferring them to his environment undoubtedly impress me. Especially during our pre-exhibition work times, when they let their knowledge speak, they almost work magic and they have fascinating results. I continue to feel the magic that I felt in my childhood in the workshops of the masters.
Who are the artists you particularly follow, admire their work, and let them influence you?
As a viewer, I love any work that changes my momentary mood. A work that gives me a feeling of uneasiness when I am happy leaves a deep impression on me. Or, on the contrary, a work that makes the unhappiness go away… I may see art viewing as a balancing factor. While Deborah Sengl’s adding animal figures to her art, giving them consciousness, and including them among us makes me happy, Olivier de Sagazan’s dark world, his performances that make it difficult to breathe, and his political language negatively affect my mood. I find both extremely successful and productive.
If you were given a huge budget and you could only buy one artist’s work with that budget, whose work would you buy?
Edvard Munch – The Scream
What have you been working on lately? Do you have new projects or new ideas developing?
I started to analyze my unfinished paintings and sculptures that I had started before. Without losing the initial idea, I approach it again with new feelings and new experiences. As a result of some of my completed works, if I like the idea and feel of those works, I transfer the effect I get from them to my next works. They turn into ongoing works in series. Although I’m not so sure, I may start a new series of sculptures with animal figures in the near future. At the moment, there is a bear figure that I modeled with paper pulp in the workshop and I think there will be a continuation of this.
What kind of future do you envision in your career? Where do you envision yourself ten years from now?
I dream of a future where my productions are more visible, understood, and people get more curious about what I am doing. This will encourage me to produce more. If possible, let me have more energy every day, concentrate on the ideas in my head and produce more.
In the next ten years, I plan to build myself a bus caravan. A well-equipped workshop caravan where I can do large-scale works. After that, I can’t think of myself in a clear place. I don’t want to stay still. There should also be a fixed area where I can store my productions.
Many art competitions are organized in Turkey, where young artists can participate, apply and show themselves, what do you think about these competitions?
Every person who has the desire to produce will want to bring their productions to the audience one day. I sympathize with every event and platform that paves the way for realizing this dream. I hope such events continue to multiply.
How did you meet Art50.net? You are in one of Turkey’s leading art platforms. What are your expectations?
Thanks to the recommendation of a close friend of mine, I gained knowledge. When I examined the artists, I saw that a friend of mine was also here. After examining the social media accounts and the website where the artists are exhibited, I had the opportunity to gain more insight…
A tailor strives to achieve the most satisfactory result by combining the jacket given to him, and the tools in his workshop with his handy skills and knowledge. The confectioner, on the other hand, is expected to bring it together with people he knows will fit his body size and style. In my opinion, the discipline applied in the production and marketing part of art is no different from this. Some tailors are in an effort to produce better workmanship than the previous one. I have the same feeling while producing. We can also consider this as a competition with oneself. Of course, one cannot always carry one’s art, craft, or other skills further than the previous one, but I think the important thing is to have this feeling at every start. I also observed this in Art50.net and its team. I think that they have the innovations, knowledge, and equipment that can keep up with the times in the changing world order.
My expectation from Art50.net is that they make me and the other artists in their team as visible as possible and lay the groundwork for us to produce more.
Are you following the developments regarding NFT, which has been on the agenda lately? Do you have NFT studies or plans?
I watched a few videos about NFT. As far as I can interpret it, it is the process of adapting a picture or video to digital media by the producer and leaving the copyright to the seller. In this period when technology is developing rapidly, we know that artificial intelligence algorithms easily detect copyrighted music. I see NFT as a new formation or technology that can make demands on the works used without permission.
I have digital works, but I do not have detailed information on how to adapt them to NTF, and what it takes for them to become an NFT.
You can access Batıkan B. Bostancı’s works on Art50.net here.