Mustafa Hulusi
07 Dec 2011 - 14 Jan 2012
© Mustafa Hulusi
Still from single-channel video projection, The EMPTY Near East (based on a short story by Jonathan Miles) 2011
Still from single-channel video projection, The EMPTY Near East (based on a short story by Jonathan Miles) 2011
MUSTAFA HULUSI
The EMPTY Near East
7 December, 2011 – 14 January, 2012
London born Turkish-Cypriot artist Mustafa Hulusi presents The EMPTY Near East, a unique display of wall drawing and film.
Hulusi’s most recent film uses gentle narrative and subtitling to reflect on the after effect of a series of cataclysmic events. We see luxuriant footage and classical ruins in a land brought to an apparent standstill by countless waves of warfare. Humans can no longer hold sway and all is left to a hypothetical evolution; bees fly in and out of deserted hives, shallow stretches of woodland give way to sharp angles of deserted beach; flowers nod in the wind and the slow footage of broken columns and churches provides both an overview and local detail. The artist encourages a sense of post-traumatic timelessness in an idyllic land which mimics exactly those heightened, heavenly, Mediterranean elements more commonly associated with escape and comfort. Through a range of media, Hulusi continues to refer to the fulsome beauty of the Island of Cyprus as well as its troubled past.
The strikingly stark wall painting simply alludes to both religious and domestic interiors. The abstract black and white repeated pattern, a distillation of geometric abstraction in much of Hulusi’s earlier film, screen-print and installation, reflects a fascination with the relentless absorption of decorative and cultural style, the retinal search for transcendence.
For further information please contact Sidonie Motion on 44(0)20 7495 4960 or sidonie@maxwigram.com
Hulusi’s (b. 1971, London, UK) 2011 and 2010 solo shows include: ‘The EMPTY Near East’ at The Page Gallery (Seoul, Korea), Galerist, (Istanbul, Turkey) and ‘Afyon’ at Max Wigram Gallery. In 2009 Hulusi also presented a film with Mark Titchner: The Worshippers, Max Wigram Gallery. ‘Obliteration and Memory’ at Patrick Painter (Los Angeles) and ‘The Ruins’ at Hulusi’s artist run space The Civic Rooms. He also participated in group shows at the Whitechapel Gallery (London), Saatchi Gallery (London) and the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (Sunderland, UK). In 2007 Hulusi represented the Republic of Cyprus at the 52nd International Exhibition of Contemporary Art of La Biennale di Venezia and had solo exhibitions at A-Foundation, Liverpool, and Max Wigram Gallery. Since 2002 he has taken part in group exhibitions in the UK and internationally including Fall Out; War and Conflict in the British Council Collection, Whitechapel Gallery, London. When We Build, Let Us Think That We Build Forever, BALTIC, Gateshead, UK; Into Me Out of Me at P.S.1/MOMA (NY) and Kunst-Werke (Berlin); Abstraction – Extracting from Reality, Millennium Galleries (Sheffield); East International 05, Norwich Art Gallery (Norwich); This is England, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (Sunderland).
The EMPTY Near East
7 December, 2011 – 14 January, 2012
London born Turkish-Cypriot artist Mustafa Hulusi presents The EMPTY Near East, a unique display of wall drawing and film.
Hulusi’s most recent film uses gentle narrative and subtitling to reflect on the after effect of a series of cataclysmic events. We see luxuriant footage and classical ruins in a land brought to an apparent standstill by countless waves of warfare. Humans can no longer hold sway and all is left to a hypothetical evolution; bees fly in and out of deserted hives, shallow stretches of woodland give way to sharp angles of deserted beach; flowers nod in the wind and the slow footage of broken columns and churches provides both an overview and local detail. The artist encourages a sense of post-traumatic timelessness in an idyllic land which mimics exactly those heightened, heavenly, Mediterranean elements more commonly associated with escape and comfort. Through a range of media, Hulusi continues to refer to the fulsome beauty of the Island of Cyprus as well as its troubled past.
The strikingly stark wall painting simply alludes to both religious and domestic interiors. The abstract black and white repeated pattern, a distillation of geometric abstraction in much of Hulusi’s earlier film, screen-print and installation, reflects a fascination with the relentless absorption of decorative and cultural style, the retinal search for transcendence.
For further information please contact Sidonie Motion on 44(0)20 7495 4960 or sidonie@maxwigram.com
Hulusi’s (b. 1971, London, UK) 2011 and 2010 solo shows include: ‘The EMPTY Near East’ at The Page Gallery (Seoul, Korea), Galerist, (Istanbul, Turkey) and ‘Afyon’ at Max Wigram Gallery. In 2009 Hulusi also presented a film with Mark Titchner: The Worshippers, Max Wigram Gallery. ‘Obliteration and Memory’ at Patrick Painter (Los Angeles) and ‘The Ruins’ at Hulusi’s artist run space The Civic Rooms. He also participated in group shows at the Whitechapel Gallery (London), Saatchi Gallery (London) and the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (Sunderland, UK). In 2007 Hulusi represented the Republic of Cyprus at the 52nd International Exhibition of Contemporary Art of La Biennale di Venezia and had solo exhibitions at A-Foundation, Liverpool, and Max Wigram Gallery. Since 2002 he has taken part in group exhibitions in the UK and internationally including Fall Out; War and Conflict in the British Council Collection, Whitechapel Gallery, London. When We Build, Let Us Think That We Build Forever, BALTIC, Gateshead, UK; Into Me Out of Me at P.S.1/MOMA (NY) and Kunst-Werke (Berlin); Abstraction – Extracting from Reality, Millennium Galleries (Sheffield); East International 05, Norwich Art Gallery (Norwich); This is England, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (Sunderland).