SANATORIUM presents Irmak Canevi’s fourth solo exhibition “Hop Through We Hop” between the dates of November 8 and December 21, 2024. In “Hop Through We Hop” Canevi explores the notion of permission in several ways, including an intervention in the space, and new works produced by expanding his use of materials and methods. The exhibition focuses on three important permissions: permission given to the passersby to look at the gallery through an opening; permission the artist gives himself to produce sculptures while playing with all kinds of materials and methods; and finally the permission he must have to live his identity to the fullest with his lover.
The exhibition’s title refers to the hole that the artist made in the wall of the display window of the gallery, reminding us that it is now possible to look from the outside in. Through this gap, we see the outward-facing face of Rainbow Dragon, one of the works the artist created for the exhibition using paper coffee cups covered with concrete and wax. Inspired by the Chinese figure of a two-headed dragon, the sculpture bridges the divide between the pragmatic and the playful. In Hong Kong, it is believed that dragon spirits can fly freely from the mountains to the sea through gaps left in the middle floors of high-rise residences. This design has its origins in the Chinese teaching of feng shui, meaning 'wind' and 'water'.
Much like Rainbow Dragon, a series of sculptures made of uncommon materials are displayed on their own shelves on the wall. Lip Burn (O), Snap, Unique Forms of the Paper Coffee Cups in Space (Accidental Boccioni), and Lend Me An Ear are new multi-component variations of Canevi's sculptures made of paper coffee cups. You Are Sweet, made of vacuum-sealed candies, references Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) by the artist Felix Gonzales Torres, in which Torres immortalizes the loss of his lover Ross.
Models built by the artist based on photographs of urban details of different cities are displayed in shadow boxes on the walls. These compositions produced through his use of bricolage and collage techniques are abstract reliefs Canevi reassembled by deconstructing the photographs he has taken.
A tall figure on two legs covered with tennis balls that can no longer bounce because they have been cut in half also becomes a pedestal on which other smaller sculptures are displayed.
In this exhibition, Canevi concentrates on sculptures and diversifies his production through works made by fastening different materials. These works, which deal with different aspects of the notion of permission, ultimately embody the 'permission' given by the artist to himself to pronounce his queer existence both artistically and in society, without seeking anyone’s approval.
About the artist:
Irmak Canevi (b. 1971, Ankara, Turkey) received his BA in painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, and his MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, also in painting. His process has its origin in an ongoing activity: the rigorous redecoration of his studio. Content in passage is suspended and entrapped to make still-lives, which then become souvenirs from a singular time and place. He grows worlds that are places of conflict, transformation, and refuge for experimentation and play. He plays and play makes work. As of late Irmak has been making sculptures. He has been artist-in-resident at the Vermont Studio Center (2011) and more recently at PLOP in London (2019), and Trelex in Switzerland (2022). Irmak is also the founder of the TekTrope Artist Residency in Istanbul. His work has been shown internationally in exhibitions, including Western Exhibitions, Chicago; Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum, Providence; Bellevue Arts Museum, Seattle; 111 Front Street Galleries, New York; Yaya, 400x118, Sanatorium, Versus, Kairos, Krank, Mixer, 5533, Apartment Project, Istanbul; and Ka Atölye, Ankara.