Ahmet Çerkez’s first solo exhibition, “Stateless Maps,” can be visited at Art On İstanbul from February 15 to March 17, 2018.
In “Stateless Maps,” Ahmet Çerkez focuses on a series characterized by a limited color palette, untreated canvas surfaces, and a minimal expression, exploring the tension between life and death. The works do not point to a specific place but carry traces of time and lived experiences. Using dried flower petals, circular rust stains, and pencil lines on the canvas, the artist transforms the traces of the creative process itself.
The geometric forms created with rust stains on the raw canvas, accompanied by rose petals whose color value will change over time, form the foundation of the composition. They can also be read as a map, leaving traces of lived experiences on the plan of a place without belonging. Drawing inspiration from both material and form in nature, these paintings evoke the renewal of life and rebirth following death and disappearance.
The “Stateless Maps” series references the act of migration, where life established in a certain geography comes to an end and must be rebuilt elsewhere. It poetically depicts, with minimal intervention, the traces left by migrants at any time or place in the world.