As Is, Basel

About Seçil

London-based artist Seçil draws her unique creative power from the perfect contrast between order and freedom, confronting free and physical form with a geometric grid that, as a structure-giving fabric, spans, penetrates and gives rhythm… Read more

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

London-based artist Seçil draws her unique creative power from the perfect contrast between order and freedom, confronting free and physical form with a geometric grid that, as a structure-giving fabric, spans, penetrates and gives rhythm to the image space. The selected colours, lighting effects and complementary contrasts play important roles and functions in this process. As immaterial essences, they influence the representational act; as aesthetic abutments, they place the immeasurable atop the visible. One might even compare them to emotions within representational space.

The metronomic repetition of coloured grid lines initially emphasises a two-dimensional approach. Especially within the context of urban experiences and architecture, this structure-giving texture possesses a strong sensory contrast, for even though a topography or landscape can be measured and mapped, its potential and uniqueness are not made visible by the grid. Renaissance painters still used perspective grids in order to produce realistic depictions of objects and landscapes. Seçil has a similar goal, although it is nothing less than the attempt to interweave the non-representational with the representational.

In her series Bird’s Eye View, she presents aerial perspectives of various European cities such as Basel, Zurich, Lausanne and Istanbul. As free and abstract forms, the cities’ layouts make up one part of the colourful fabric; the other results from a sophisticated combination with the chosen grid. This visual form can be seen as a metaphor for the interplay between dream and reality. For Seçil, these two spheres and entities are directly related and form an existential whole.

Seçil has held solo exhibitions in Istanbul, Ankara and New York and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. She published her first book in 2016, has attended many different symposia and artists’ residencies, and her paintings may be found in many renowned private collections.

Stephan Reisner