Nazlı Gürlek Hodder
Skin
2018, series of 8, oil paint, linseed oil and graphite on paper 45 x 61 cm each (without frame)
The series represents an imaginary journey within the body and a return to a sense of being in the body. The witnessing self infiltrates the body through the skin and explores the leaks and flows underneath it. The work proposes a conception of the human body as an insecure, inconsistent and vulnerable artifact, with unclear, leaky boundaries in constant continuation and flow with the rest of life surrounding it.
The working process here, like in many other pieces on paper, consists of converting physical movements, emotional states, sensations and mental monologues into immediate and spontaneous visual configurations. Through a self-reflexive, repetitive process rooted in the here and now of my own lived experience I collect data that consists of sensations, feelings, and mental monologues, and measure it against natural phenomena such as gravity, liquidity, light, wind, heat and elements like water and earth. Chemical reactions are allowed to emerge by chance from the free interaction of materials within ordered frames. The works can be seen as the visual expression of the personal experience of the body. They are displayed against sunlight or an artificial source of light which lend the works a living, glowing corporeality.