Ode to a Dying Star brings together Banu Birecikligil’s recent works and presents the viewer with an updated interpretation of the artist’s visual narratives centered around mythology and nature. The worlds Birecikligil constructs are inspired by ancient mythologies and speculative imaginations of the future; and they reformulate the fragile relationship between humans and the natural world on a figurative and symbolic plane.
In the works included in the exhibition, a traveler in a landscape of unknown location points to a supernova shining in the horizon. This traveler figure reminds the audience of the universe of The Little Prince, as well as The Fool in Tarot symbology: at the beginning of a journey, in a moment of curiousity, uncertainty, and fearlessness, and almost frozen in time, the plane which she inhabits dissolves time and space. It is uncertain whether this is a world, another planet, past or present. To appear and to disappear, life and death confront us as the complementary pieces of the same cycle. The state of “in-betweenness” present in a lot of Birecikligil’s paintings acquire a level of intensity that is almost palpable in these works. The natural and the human are intertwined in this space, neither fully domesticated nor completely wild. Comfort and primal instinct meet on the same surface as mythological allusions. Underneath the peacefulness of a cat snuggled on its pillow are animals in an imaginary cave that still carry their ancient ties. The artist sensitively handles references to classical art and mythology from a contemporary point of view in this state of opposition and transition.
Birecikligil’s paintings move the viewer to the edge of a reality that is both familiar and displaced. It all begins on the shore of an unclear landscape with a glance pointed towards the light of a distant star. Just like a supernova: the brightest moment is the closest to the moment of disappearance. Rising and fading appear as stops on their way to a mutual kinesis. Ode to a Dying Star approaches this journey as a visual requiem written for a star destined to burn bright and fade away.
