A Fading Distance draws forth cognitively and spatially alternative means of looking nearby and in the distance through photography. Acar presents a view into being on the road, a state that is prevalent both in his photographic practice and the course of his life, in two discrete points of view. A choice: A guiding fiction or an indifferent randomness.
In the exhibition, the ground floor features pieces from the Absence series, which traces the vanishing objects in the landscape and the emptiness they left in their wake. These photographs stand distanced from reality, unaltered yet clearly exhibiting an inherent fictionality. The way the objects, lights and lines in these images partially follow or resemble each other creates an indistinct link between one another. A tower in the distance, the smokestacks of a factory, a crack running through a wall, the iron gate of a garden all call out to us from the confines of the same realm despite being in different locations, exuding a mysterious tale that stirs the imagination and heralds its existence. An enigma: A curious poetry or an ordinary promenade.
On the second floor, we witness a more subjective approach, wherein, instead of scanning the horizon on the road, Acar lets moments that catch his eye come to the forefront. Thus, the distance between him and his photographic practice fades. It’s almost as if his eye is the camera itself. As the physical and noetic details dissolve, the artist’s approach to landscapes shines through more clearly than ever. The random and inconsistent nature of their locations bestows these photographs a sense of courage, dynamicism, and experimentalism. The rearview mirror captured from inside the car and the satnav’s light reflecting off it underline the journey, rather than the road itself. A quote: Travel, which is like a greater and graver science, brings us back to ourselves. —Albert Camus
Sound Installation
The radio static reverberates from the staircase. The videos accompanying this audio installation also appear at first to be static, as still as photographs. Upon closer inspection, the minute shifts and slight flutters that are intrinsic and ordinary to these landscapes come into focus. Hence, the static and the videos reinforce each other. A request: Attention to details and constant observation.
Here arises a connection between the radio broadcast the artist listens to throughout his trip—creating a blend of meaningful sounds and static as it changes with time and place— and the manner oscillating across two floors with which the artist approaches photography. The sound bridges the images the artist captured from a distance with those that have caught his eye inadvertently—two planes that would appear to change as they are distanced from each other—almost like a wormhole. An alternative: A defined dream and a spontaneous life.
Text by T. Melis Golar
Translation by Mert Batırbaygil
