Sharp Things
Sharp Things" is rectangular in shape and consists of multiple layers of colored, anodized metal wires that are densely wound around iron alloy screws which are drilled into a black wooden surface. In an abstract composition in pink, two black curved indentations mirror one another. The work, although meant to be a conceptual creation, evokes through its design and title the image of a pair of facing, sharp items (the end of a sabre, for example). While the medium alludes to the rich, traditional weaving crafts of Turkey, the metal wires create an interplay of light and color which changes depending on the position of the viewer. Thus, the work not only appears as a colorfully abstract pair of black "sharp things" cutting into the pink ground, but also adds smooth reflections of light and shadow vibrating over the entire surface like the soft movement of flowing water.
Although initially a painter, Gülay Semercioğlu, has replaced the medium of canvas and paint with rigid, wooden frames and carefully spun wire. "My whole struggle is with light and how I can control it – the same issue painters have faced throughout the history of art," she says. "Whatever it is that a painter seeks to do in his or her work, I am trying to do the same with wire, with the same emotion." Her deft manipulation of her signature material creates patterns and textures that mimic an abstract painter’s brush strokes and her non-figurative, non-referential, and non-narrative artworks that balance color, space, shape, and surface are reminiscent of finely executed abstract and color field paintings.
Although initially a painter, Gülay Semercioğlu, has replaced the medium of canvas and paint with rigid, wooden frames and carefully spun wire. "My whole struggle is with light and how I can control it – the same issue painters have faced throughout the history of art," she says. "Whatever it is that a painter seeks to do in his or her work, I am trying to do the same with wire, with the same emotion." Her deft manipulation of her signature material creates patterns and textures that mimic an abstract painter’s brush strokes and her non-figurative, non-referential, and non-narrative artworks that balance color, space, shape, and surface are reminiscent of finely executed abstract and color field paintings.
Artwork Details
- Title: Sharp Things
- Artist: Gülay Semercioğlu (Turkish, born Istanbul, 1968)
- Date: 2013
- Geography: Country of Origin Turkey, Istanbul
- Medium: Steel wire and screws on wood
- Dimensions: H. 63 3/4 in. (162 cm)
W. 44 1/16 in. (112 cm)
D. 2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm) - Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Gift of Öner Kocabeyoğlu, 2014
- Object Number: 2014.132
- Rights and Reproduction: © Gülay Semercioğlu
- Curatorial Department: Islamic Art
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