PAST

Waves of Intention

6 MAY 2023 - 10 JUNE 2023

Pilot Gallery is happy to announce Gözde Mimiko Türkkan’s first solo show at its exhibition space titled “Waves of Intention” between May 6 - June 10.

Türkkan's latest bodies of work, which she has been establishing since Innergy/Watery Incantations (2021), have shifted their focus from a human body-centric approach to employing various bodies to meditate on the complicated entanglement of human and non-human interactions. Rather than becoming an outsider to nature, Türkkan's practice emphasizes immersing oneself in the flow of nature. Her later pieces of work have been focused on water bodies and the movement of energy in these bodies; the waves, in her endeavour to observe this flow and find ways to understand and transform this energy into “innergy”. As the waves propagate in many forms and lengths, Türkkan thinks about the possibility of "intentions" spreading like waves and the potential outcomes of the intentions.

Rather than deconstructing the continuous dichotomy between the human and non-human, Türkkan reflects on this entanglement of relationships by investigating the nature of waves, the waves that surround us, the earth and every animate and inanimate being the same, and begins her narrative with a non-construction of the dichotomy. The material waves and non-material waves alike, carrying beings within and without the flow; the waves that happen in the water bodies, migration waves, waves of pandemics, seismic waves, light waves, electromagnetic waves, the energy is transferred in space and time, regardless of the nature of the being. Of the various types, the waves that occur in the water bodies are the ones which can be observed in their momentum, with the

naked eye in their purest forms. The wave, which is simply an energy transfer and flow, transports

the energy it receives from wind and weather events in the open seas in the ocean, from where it is

generated to beaches where the seabed rises and 'breaks'.

Waves of Intention (2023) question the act and the capabilities of “intention”, which is a form of the

electromagnetic wave; the act of creating an intention, letting it into the flow of things to the universe.

Untangling the red string into the waves, Türkkan references a shamanic tradition that she

experienced from her grandmother; the way she would untangle the ball of yarn into the sea during

sunrise, along with the intention of untangling the fates of the person she was intending for. While

the motive behind the action is a positive one, the consequences for marine ecology and the damage

to oceanic life are overlooked. The accompanying speech is dubbed through an AI text-to-speech

app.

The 10-meter Wave offers another way of experiencing the waves with the body, drawing and

redrawing them thousands of times. As the waves come and go, their beings interweave one

another, impossible to observe in their singularity. The new paper-based works accompanying The

10-meter Wave also present Türkkan’s meditative texts in a new medium along the way, where her

speeches accompanying her video work find a new home to be explored, observed and read.

Dumping Waves (2023) approaches the world, situations and phenomena from an ecological

perspective through waves and surfing; In the world of surfing, different types of waves have been

identified and named, each carrying a specific meaning. Türkkan's take on "Dumping Waves" seeks

to offer the traditional definition of waves hitting the shore violently by juxtaposing this definition

with a contemporary issue: the abundance of plastic waste and bottles polluting the oceans, which

are now dumping their energy onto the shores.

Earth Fight (2022) is a take on the damages that arise as a result of natural processes, human error,

or overly intrusive interventions made in an effort to repair the damage of floods, landslides, and

forest fires… Türkkan focuses on an individual who attempts to position oneself solely at the centre

of the flow of which they are a part; the damage of nature reflects on the individual, and with each

punch conducted, the pain is shared.

Innergy/Watery Incantations (2021) centres on the notion of flow and its realised body, the water

bodies. Through a series of images captured in six different countries over three years, Türkkan

explores the boundaries, depth, memory, and change of consciousness that exist in the relationship

between humans and water in an attempt to become one with water; the boundaries between the

water bodies and human bodies are blurred within the flow as water makes up %60 of the human

bodies. The sound accompanying the scenes serves to enhance this exploration, immersing the

viewer in a state of deep contemplation.

Gözde Mimiko Türkkan’s “Waves of Intention” can be seen in Pilot Gallery until June 10.