Site for information on new exhibitions, work in progress and presentation ideas.
Artist Statement:
Ismail Erbil’s practice investigates the body and its relationship to hybrid cultures. Ideas of gender, domestic interiors and traditional ceremonies as experienced in the artist’s own Turkish background and upbringing in London inform his practice. Erbil’s installations and sculptures reference both traditional and non-traditional uses of materials that create an in-between space for re-interpreting the body, creating other-worldly reconstructions of the self.
Works such as Tea Garden juxtaposes both the iconography of conservative historical object with explicit found imagery to suggest those sub-texts in domestic social conventions that remain unsaid, unspoken and veiled.
Within Erbil’s installations there are references to rituals, domesticity, cultural and sexual identity which are informed by his Kurdish/Turkish background. It’s important to mention that while having autobiographical references his work refers to a broader dialogue about identity, cultural dynamics and increasingly, interventions in materiality.
Within his sculptural assemblages he interweaves new narratives through association and appropriation to create an ‘otherworldly’ quality. He interweaves ‘new narratives’ to approach the ‘other’ and create spaces for such stories to take place. Erbil accesses actions relevant in the domestic setting of a household and transplant these actions into a wholly unrelated context making new connections between materials objects and behaviour.
Ismail Erbil completed a B.A in fashion design at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London in 2002.
Upcoming exhibition:
Schwartz Gallery Project Space, 14th October 2011
Solo Show: Installation
Recent group shows include A-L-L-O-T-M-E-N-T-S 2011, Unobtrusive Measures, curated by Mark Selby (2011), Patrick Michalopoulos and Ismail Erbil, 2010 (Schwartz Gallery Project Space), A-L-L-O-T-M-E-N-T-S (2010) and Wonder Island (2009), Flux (2008) at Schwartz Gallery, and Across the Grain at Forty Hall, London (2008) and his work has been shown at the Powerhouse in Brisbane, 2004, Australia.
In addition to his studio practice, Ismail is also co-founder, director and artist-curator of Schwartz Gallery.
http://www.schwartzgallery.co.uk
Lost in Space, 2012, dimensions variable, soap, crystal quartz, Soho shredded magazines, painted turquoise wall, plants, acrylic sheets, empty cheese tins and found objects.
