Migration stories

Migration has been a matter of need for humanity which causes its development. Being a migrant is a nostalgic feeling and looking at a utopic identity from a different location. The migrant lives within darkness and light just like living in a romantic space and time. To understand migration better, we need to look at it closer. The concept of migration takes place beyond the borders of a canvas in an endless path. Art and migration renew the human presence within its lifetime. The phenomenon of migration is the main means for change, affecting the culture and art along with all aspects of life. We reflect the migration path on paintings only through the expressions of color, texture, light and shadow. Migration has various conceptual dimensions that resulted from different reasons. The theme of migration has been continuing until today due to three major revolutions, namely, agricultural, industrial and digital. The aspects of visual art in modern day has taken on a different dimension due to the experience of urbanization and industrialization in addition to migration, war and efforts of search. Migration is the result of a change of location and time, however the phenomenon of migration presents itself through individualistic and societal expressions. The issue has been going on continuously within the understanding of time as before now and then. The terms such as immigrant, refugee, asylum seeker, victim, squatting etc. have arisen depending upon the concept of migration. Visual arts, specifically within painting, open up many perspectives to introduce the concept of migration. The work in proficiency in art involves thinking about the concept of migration and expressing the meaning of migration in a personal and artistic way by benefitting from various methods and materials. Modernism has started with the effect of globalization, production, use of nature, trading and the industrialization of services. In modern time, new waves of migrations have started after the urbanization industrialization, and the abuse the natural resources. In the process of the proficiency in art works, the symbols and metaphors that were used in the paintings, cinema, sculpture, and photography that are expressing migration were analyzed. The common structural elements were revealed aesthetically and visually. While reaching the core of the topic, in an expressionist and abstract way, the work brings the plastic elements in the paintings, the ambience of migration within various compositions. As an immigrant artist of a society that changes location frequently, I reflect the symbols of migration in my art work. The notions that are brought up by the theme of migration such as hope, sadness, resistance, search, justice, and injustice are placed in my compositions as visual elements. My goal is to reflect the aesthetic impressions of the personal and societal effects of migration through the figures, horses, striving fishes, colors and the carried objects on my paintings. In my work of proficiency in art, I presented the effect of migration through personal and societal influences. Within this school of thought, themes such as urbanization, industrialization, poverty, squatting, slavery, sex trade and terrorism stand out in my art work. The goal is to present an artistic language within the framework of abstract expressionism. The common ground of various techniques and materials is that all were created by putting the concept in the center while seeking for a visual language.