Press Release

It's not easy to stand in my spot
I seem to sense the call of other spots
Yet could my standing-in-a-spot be called just that
When that spot I stand in will not stand still

(Özdemir Asaf, Electronic)

Aslı Narin’s first solo exhibition Spin is about the artist, having set out on the road with no purpose of destination, searching for what is constant in nature and within herself. At points where she pauses along her path, Narin captures distinct moments as photographs and videos. In these monochromatic, almost abstract images, the essence of matter momentarily appears to become visible; nature and the body reveal their secrets. The movement of the path, of light and of water remind the viewer of the impossibility of remaining in a single spot, and the inevitability of returning to a point of origin.

Özdemir Asaf’s poem titled Electronic is the most important source of inspiration in Narin’s research process. As a science, electronics is based on the principle of the movement of electrons (free electrons dragged towards a magnetic field form an electrical current). In this sense, the dynamic structure of the atomic universe implied by the title of the poem enables us to view the desperate search of the self from a physical and universal perspective. Why do we seek stability, while the world we inhabit, and in fact, the universe itself, revolves and flows? What happens when that state of equilibrium is disturbed? Balance lost, disrupted, drifting towards uncharted territory, where do the oscillations of the self take us? It is perhaps these lines from T.S Eliot's Four Quartets that best shed light on these questions posed by this exhibition: “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.”