The “Authentic Beginnings” tile exhibition, consisting of works by students of Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University (FSMVU) Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Traditional Turkish Arts, has opened at the Kandilli Campus of the university.
The exhibition included the works of Latife Aktan Özel’s (Dr. Lecturerin the Traditional Turkish Arts Department) students attending her classes during the years 2011-2019. The exhibition included new designs with authentic motifs based on classic samples.
The exhibition, on display from March 3 to March 18, included 26 graduate’s 100 works which the students created during their education. “All of our works are original and unique,”said Latife Aktan Özel, the tile artist. She added:“Both their installation and most their motifs arenew and extraordinary. At first, our students learn the classic, they digest it and then create unique motifs and designs with little touches. For example, they have created tulips from glass, gillyflower and wheel rim from peacock and penç from the manhole cover. They have produced works that made them special by applying their own design, form, motif and composition. As the university department, we have chosento gather these works and display them.”
The works created by Latife Aktan Özel were also on display. These works producedwith the “layered tile technique” were developed together with her students in 2013. The mentioned technique brought a new impulse to tile art. In this technique, which can be called as a contribution to underglaze technique, motifs of appropriate size are mounted inseparably with glaze on the tile and pots and pans.
Expressing that Turkish tile art pursues novelty and change since the past, Özel made the following assessment: “Tile has an origin. We must be true to this. However, when we look back, we can see that there was no stagnation. There is always a quest for novelty and change. There are many types of applications and rules such as rumi, hurda, sarılma, dendanlı. Previously, the color glaze technique was used. This technique has been developed in time and replaced by the under-glaze technique, which is widely applied today. In other words, it is not possible to add a novelty and innovate without mastering the classic. For this reason, we provide an education that includes classical motifs and designwith their own rules for our students. We are also open to innovation. We have tile works on different materials, for example, we have fabric-based works.”
Comments