Serkan Özkaya (Turkish)
Bakers Apprentice, 2006
Serkan Özkaya is a conceptual artist based in Istanbul, whose works are mainly
about appropriation and reproduction; they usually operate outside traditional spaces
for art.
Serkan Özkaya was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1973. He mastered in fine arts
at Bard College, New York. He has been an artist-in-residence at Ecole Regionale
des Beaux Arts de Nantes (2000 2001), at Rooseum in Malmo with the IASPIS grant
(2002). He has a Ph.D in German Language and Literature department at Istanbul University,
where he also earned his B.A. and M.A. Özkaya is a fellow of the MacDowell
Colony in New Hampshire.
Artist's Statement
My main interest with [Baker's Apprentice] was the idea of a disaster and
the beauty in it.
I actually saw a young girl carrying all those egg-boxes and imagined what would
happen if she fell over with all of them. Then I realized that there is a certain
beauty in every kind of disaster. If only the eggs wouldn't fall and be smashed,
if only she wouldn't fall actually and stay in that moment, in between her routine
life and the disaster. I guess that's where the sublime lies somehow. The newspapers,
movies, books are full with disasters everyday and there is an undeniable beauty
in all of them; in the fire, plane crash etc. That's what attracts people. If only
in the end people wouldn't die and the actual damage wouldn't happen... That's I
guess the actual idea behind the Baker's Apprentice, to depict a moment
of extraordinariness without the loss, without the damage. Just the moment of flying,
into void... (Sounds like Yves Klein indeed!)
Exhibited Work
Bakers Apprentice, 2006
Fiber, eggs, acrylic paint
Past Exhibitions
Lauren Argo
Life as Art: Live Art Installation
June 4 - 24, 2006
enclosed window space at 21c Museum Hotel’s restaurant, Proof on Main
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exhibition details