Lot 131: Balkan Naci Islimyeli (Turkish, b. 1947)

Balkan Naci Islimyeli (Turkish, b. 1947)
Commandments (From The Word Series)
acrylic on zinc laid down on canvas
69 1/8 x 82in. (176 x 210cm.)
Executed in 1992

Balkan Naci Islimyeli's work as an artist relates to his study of structure as an element of expression in the visual arts, the subject of his thesis. Islimyeli works with and on various media. A recurrent theme is his wish to create a new semiotic language through structures and visual signs. Building on the ready made concept, he takes familiar objects or symbols and places them in unfamiliar, often surprising contexts. In the present work he takes a speech bubble, found usually in the context of the comic book, but here executed in metal and emblazoned in monumental size on a canvas, an example of Naci's process and disruption of the visual routines.