Yonca Karakas | Anatomy of Things Exhibition at PG Art Gallery

#PHOTOGRAPHY Magazine cover star Yonca Karakas focuses on improvement of the human mind and dogmatic ideas at her first solo exhibition titled ‘Anatomy of Things’. The show that she re-defines the perception of ‘reality’ will be on view between January 21 – February 25, 2017 at Pg Art Gallery. Karakas builds a new universe by the objects she uses, the spaces and characters she creates. “Tabula rasa": the human mind comes to this world as an empty plate, as John Locke put it. The information gathered in time is carved onto this plate; each and every bit of information obtained, in fact, deprives the mind of its freedom. Free mind loses its freedom completely due to dogmatic ideas acquired in time and never apprehends the process of losing. The biggest problem of a human being who is in the effort of existence is that he/she sets on the way without being aware of several walls, which will eventually surround them. Unfortunately, this human being confronts a single set of mind at the end of the road. Any information and story passed onto next generations by their ancestors has unfortunately become the guiding light for today and tomorrow. Holding on to this reality, the living creature gives shape to his/her constrained life accordingly, and cannot reach the actual reality in the world of ideas, which makes the essence of living, due to their way of construing things, thus keeps lingering around ideas. The artist generally tells the stories of the existing universe in alternative universes, while trying to discuss things in the context of history, religion and psychology. She creates a brand new universe manipulating the viewers’ sense of “reality” through the objects, space, states and characters she uses. Pieces of meat in frames, crosses made of candies, giant lobsters, necklaces of donuts, perfect skins, android and cold characters avoiding eye contact, and cloning. Karakas's first solo exhibition features "a thing" in the Anatomy of Things. Thing: Objects, inanimate objects, objects, substances, things that can be perceived by senses. In Philosophy, everything that can be the subject of the thinking consciousness, that is not actually existed but only thought. Human being lacking in consciousness. "Thing" creates its own meaning when moving along with other images around it. When we think in any sentence, we can get some ideas about it together with the other words of the sentence, but it is completely unclear when it is alone. It is paradoxically pointing to itself again, even when it is used here to point to the unknown, which has a strange charm with uncertainty. You can put it anywhere, like a wildcard in words, you can fit it everywhere. ‘Can I make great meanings when taking pictures, can I post a message today? Instead of putting myself into a situation like this, I try everything that comes from me. The freedom to do what we want without being concerned about giving a message in this universe, where we try to live in a compressed reality creates an alternative space away from today's knowledge and norms in which I can move freely, pertaining to me, related to work I performed.’