Berkay Tuncay
Poems from Instant Messaging (ASMR), 2020
Tek kanallı HD video, ses, 32' 10''| Single channel HD video, audio, 32' 10''
Ed. 5 + 1 AP
SANATORIUM is pleased to present Berkay Tuncay’s first solo show in the USA, titled “Just for the Hell of It”, between the dates March 30 - April 28, 2024, at DIANA NEW YORK. The exhibition takes its title from a poem by the poet Orhan Veli. “Just for the Hell of It” showcases Tuncay’s works that reflect on the impact of the internet and digital culture, employing traditional methods like embossing, screenprint, and vinyl letterings, in addition to an ASMR video installation.
In his latest series, 'Passive Aggressive Poems,' inspired by symbols decorating Instagram bios, Tuncay constructs text-like forms. He experiments with visual poetry, showcasing enlarged glyphs and symbols, building on his exploration of text.
The video installation 'Poems from Instant Messaging (ASMR)' stems from Tuncay's poetry book of the same name. ASMR videos, known for their tingling sounds like whispering and unpacking, serve as the source of inspiration here. In the video, the poems used are expanded versions of internet acronyms, organized alphabetically to resemble instant messaging dictionaries.
In 'Poems from Relaxation Videos,' he investigates how smartphones and laptops contribute to soothing stress caused by that same technology. In this work, he also deals with found words, sourced from relaxation videos on YouTube. He extracts them from the screen, formulates them into poems mimicking captcha codes, and gives them a spatial presence. Similarly, in 'Descriptive Noise,' the inspiration for the work comes from the script of the TV series "Mr. Robot." Treating these subtitles as found poetry, he assembles the descriptive noises from the series into an experimental poetry format.
“Just for the Hell of It” consists of Tuncay’s works that examine possibilities of poetry and internet based communication and invites us to explore his research on the impact of the internet and digital culture. The exhibition can be visited between March 30 - April 28, 2024, from Thursday to Sunday, 12:00-6:00 pm.
