Spotlight Contemporary Turkish artist Lal Batman
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Yetişkin says: “As soon as I met her, I realised that she has a very creative and curious mind. Her artistic skills in using various media and materials in experimental artworks were remarkable. We developed our conversation by making a collective artistic research on the shifting aspects of contemporary visual culture.”
Spanning oil paintings, digital illustrations, NFTs and video recordings, Batman’s work explores the complexities of life, unspoken stories and moments of bravery. She combines layers, textures, experimental materials, motifs, intricate structures, amorphous and deformed bodies with her personal memory to create a complex compositional puzzle and an experimental effect.
Ebru Yetişkin has worked with Batman since 2021, curating her solo exhibitions including Exposé, which presented artistic research on how digital platforms contribute to socio-cultural change.
Yetişkin says: “Today, we are living in a world with many unknowns. I believe that today, collective artistic research would enable us to explore the possibilities of co-learning and critically reflect on the various forms of ignorance production. Within experimental settings, we may generate temporary situations and collaborations that would allow for dynamic relationships and translations across the slippery boundaries among various disciplines, peoples and ideas to stimulate unpredictable forms of knowledge production. The exhibitions Exposé (February 2022) and Entr’acte: Between The Acts of Life (June 2022) are the results of this ongoing collective research process.”
Batman adds: “Since last year, I have been focusing on international projects with an intense pace. I look forward to bringing the experimental and interactive world I have created to audiences all over the world.”
Her next solo exhibition will be held at Anna Laudel Gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany, in November 2023.
About the champion
Drawing on her studies in cinema, sociology and media studies, Istanbul-based curator and researcher Ebru Yetişkin is focused on the interaction of science, technology, politics and art. As well as being committed to her academic and curatorial research, she is a founding member of the IstanbuLab – Science, Technology and Society Platform and the international organisation FEMeeting – Women in Art, Science and Technology, which was developed to increase knowledge sharing and a sense of community between individuals that identify as women.