ArtMeant* Project

Melike’s artistic practice is shaped by a performative approach that centers the movement of the body. In her painting and sculpture works, the relationship between layers, traces, voids, and materials stands out as part of her intuitive and experience-based exploration.

The process begins with a disruption of the surface and evolves into both a formal and conceptual act of destruction and reconstruction.

In this text, accompanied by a selection of her works, you can get a closer look at the ideas and processes that guide Melike’s artistic journey.

“I am a painter who transfers the energy and gestures of my own body onto the canvas through a performative approach.

My paintings carry traces of movement and speed on multilayered surfaces. The relationship between the incomplete lines of forms that can never reach their final boundaries and the layers created by stains and tones can be seen as a reflection of the bodily performance involved in the creation process. The unique energy of this performance is transferred to the canvas through the touch of experience and knowledge. While doing this, I focus on looking through emptiness and seeing it. I avoid directly reflecting any data based on concrete knowledge onto the surface. I use the grammar of painting in the most purified form I can achieve in my artistic journey.

What makes painting compelling for me is creating a sense of destruction on the surface. The first intervention is to disrupt the surface. Starting this way allows me to stay as far away as possible from the clichés in my mind and behavior. It helps me form an authentic relationship with the technique I use and with the other elements of the painting.

The works we see here were created starting from such a point of destruction. The relationship between the layers is mainly built on the interaction of charcoal, acrylic, spray paint, and pastel. The stains and lines made with charcoal in the bottom layer visibly turn into traces of bodily movement in the upper layers.

In sculpture, I carry the same approach I have in painting. I create a basis for movement by clearly revealing the possibilities and constraints of sculptural techniques. The wire, nails, and other materials on the wood become part of the performative process in this way.

In the sculptures I begin by burning the wood, I sometimes construct the structure by following the natural movement within the wood. Other times, I shape a muddy texture formed by combining small pieces. In the two sculptures seen here, I built new structures by combining the natural form of the wood with other forms. I made the fixing elements visible. In this way, I wanted the structure to be read through movement.”

Who is Melike?

Melike began her art education in 1994 at İzmir Anatolian High School of Fine Arts. She continued her studies at Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting. Later, she wrote her master’s thesis at Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Art and Design, titled “The Choreographic Object in the Works of Robert Rauschenberg, William Forsythe, and Jérôme Bel in the Context of Interdisciplinary Art.”

She studied Performatif Acting and Staging Methods with Şahika Tekand. She has held two solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions in various cities. In addition to her solo online exhibition at Cultivate Gallery in London, she has also taken part in several other online group exhibitions.

She currently works in both Istanbul and Bodrum.