One of the most prominent figures in the art of contemporary photography in Turkey, Orhan Cem Çetin, returns with his bold and distinctive style.
Having reached a simplified, pure, straight visual style in his recent series, Çetin’s works shown at Sanatorium represent a sharp turn as though completing a cycle. These new works are much more personal, gloomy and novel, yet highly reminiscent of his earliest works.
Entitled Silver Planet, the new series reflect the artist's highlights from his last three years and is essentially a visual archive of his memory. The title refers to the silver grains which form the main ingredient of the first step of the elaborate technique utilized in this project. The long and arduous process passes several times between chemistry, optics, electronics and painting, using water, sunlight, artificial light, artificial intelligence, will and often chance, and finally casts itself on paper as a mental representation, an imaginary memento of memorable times.
The artist says, “While the speed of life is accelerating with a rhythm unbearable for the human mind, the response to this destructive speed, on the contrary, should probably be rather slow.”
The resulting language and the stories told comprise a mix of all the visual paths the artist has ever pursued combined with the visual records of the scenes he has experienced.
Orhan Cem Çetin
Born in 1960 in Istanbul, Orhan Cem Çetin graduated from Boğazici University’s Department of Psychology, followed by an MFA degree of Visual Communication Design at Istanbul Bilgi University. With his 1993 Renk’Arnasyon series Çetin entered the canon of Turkish art history as the first artist to use the computer manipulated photography in his work. In addition to numerous solo and group exhibitions, his works are currently featured in 'Past and Future', the permenant collection exhibition at Istanbul Modern Art Museum,curated by Levent Çalıkoğlu in 2013. His most recent solo exhibition at Plato Sanat was curated by Marcus Graf.