can akgümüş / works

Counting The Days, 2022

Archival pigment print

Surrender, 2022

Archival pigment print

Great Dream I & II, 2022

Arşivsel pigment baskı, Archival pigment print

Kaybolan // Disappeared, 2020

Arşivsel pigment baskı, Archival pigment print, 30x50 cm

kaybolan

Tekrarlayan Hakikat // Occuring Truth, 2021

Değişken Boyutlar, Arşivsel Pigment Baskı // Variable Sizes, Archival Pigment Print

Images can be confusing. The most (important) major point about photography is its strong connections between reality and representation of reality of the time and the space we are in. Those connections make photography a solid archive so that we could always rely on the facts that it shows. But there is always a catch, what if the reality isn't confidential at all? This mind-blowing question is a priority that we have to deal with, for recent times that we are in. It’s a conflict of the truth itself and everyone is threatened by the truth that we couldn't believe in. That's why we call this century Post Truth. Photography is in danger as a way of archiving and demonstrating the actual events that occured. Even by politics itself, or if governments from all over the world who have the power in their hands for use to make any changes or to warp and twist the circumstances throughout their own benefits in the toxic, dark atmosphere, who could find the truth? Answer may be hidden here, to make an effort, to dig the ground so deep. There is always hope in acting, maybe we might get closer if we dig harder.

The series of Occurring Truth is about that digging. If we tear the layers persistently, the truth may come out, in a metaphorical way. All the grays might tear up in the end by blossoming colour itself.

Misafirler // Private Guests, 2019

Framed, Variable Sizes, Archival Pigment Print

Strangeness is a disturbing feeling for almost everyone. But that feeling has an exciting way as well. When you are in a room with strangers, you may feel different kinds of feelings at the same time. Those feelings will come down by getting to know them for sure, but the first impact is always the oddest, unidentified one.

There are images of some body parts from the strangers that I’ve hosted at my home for several years in the series of Private Guests. The name private is a clue for being a stranger and every image that I’ve taken in time has been torn into framed photographs on a shelf over the years, which seems like belonging to my family.

Dağ Monologları // Mountain Monologues, 2017

Archival Pigment Print

Identified time has yesterdays, todays and tomorrows for everyone’s agenda, so identified life has some permanent ways for living itself. It’s like a common reaction, it is predictable, requested, statistical and usual. All though, time should be more complex than we've already discovered so far, and even the daily routine of people might be so different and extraordinary rather than culture, society, history has already given shape to all of these concepts for them.

In the series of Mountain Monologues, the concept of life is located behind the mountain each one as a digital landscape on the screen. The idea of the truth is hidden behind the mountain as we’ve told. Here is the dilemma, life never starts if we can't handle the mountain situation. We can dream about it in front of our screens all day long, but unfortunately we couldn't start to live it.

Saklayıcı // Hider, 2016-2018

Archival Pigment Print

According to psychology, humans have survival instincts that reveal vital circumstances. Panic may make humans so wild and make them capable of extreme things. In those cases, the act of hiding isn’t one to be extreme but a special one.

The images are composed of both acts of hiding and being a hider without a subject (figure) in the series of Hider. There are so many traces behind runaways that we can track down in the images. Even if we figure out the marks of living things, we won’t find them in the flesh.

Hazineler // Treasures, 2016

3+1 ed. Archival Pigment Print

“kaymağı alınmış süt gibi ışığın genellikle zayıf olduğu bu yerde bile

güneşin parladığı günler oluyor; öyle bir günde otobüste

bir yolcu dönüp dokunuyor bana, elleri nasırlı, gülümsüyor.

Ve o anda her şey gönüllü bir mirasa dönüşüyor..”

Chris Killip

Hazineler, ışığın cazibesi ve bellek

Şehirler insanların arzularını nesneleştiren devasa yapıda siluetlerdir. “Hazineler” serisinde bu siluetlerin arkasına saklanmış, altlarına gömülmüş, üzerine basılmış, örtülmüş, gizlenmiş ve kaybolmuş anların içinde kendi arzularını arayan Can Akgümüş, izleyiciyi yoğun olarak kullandığı ışığın peşine düşürerek, anıların insan zihnindeki belirleyiciliğini somutlaştırıyor. Sanatçının doğadan arda kalanları/ bıraktıklarımızı onarmak isteyen bir dille işlerinde sıklıkla kullandığı doğa detayları Cézanne'ın “Doğa içeridedir” sözünü doğruluyor. Bu onarım, bir fotoğrafta gökyüzünü taşımaya çalışan ahşap bir iskeleye dönüşürken diğer bir fotoğrafta bir binayı örtmek istercesine geride bırakan ağaç dalları olarak karşımıza çıkıyor.

Fotoğraflanan anlar, kimi karelerde kazara yapılan bir keşif, kimisinde kanıksadığımız ve gözden kaçırdığımız, ya da kaçırmak istediğimiz gerçekleri kayda geçiren bir belge, kimisinde ise göz kamaştıran ama kayıttan düşmüş, ardında ne olduğunu bilmediğimiz ama aynı zamanda tanıdık yerleri işaret ediyor. Yer değiştiren, titreyen ve parıldayan görüntüler hareketi sağlıyor. Bu noktada güncel görüntünün göze, gözün ruhuna nakledilişiyle oynayan sanatçı görünmezin gizini arttırıyor. Görüntüye damga indiren “an”lar, izleyiciye neyi hatırlatmak istiyor?

Gölgelenmekte olan şey paylaşılamayacak kadar esrarengiz bir sır mı?

Yoksa yalın bir gerçeği mi iddia ediyor?

Ezgi Yıldız, 2016.