Melis Babadağ’s exhibition titled “Something That Happened to the Sun” is on view at DG Art Project until June 14. The exhibition invites those who wish to explore the artist’s creative practice on a journey where memory, emotion, and image intersect.
Artist and actress Melis Babadağ’s second solo exhibition, “Something That Happened to the Sun,” is presented to the audience at DG Art Gallery, hosted by the gallery and curated with contributions from Dr. Zeynep Öztürk.
This exhibition can be read not only as a reflection of Babadağ’s creative process in the plastic arts but also as a profound expression of her personal memory, childhood perception, and intuitive visual language. The exhibition makes visible the artist’s artistic production process, which she describes as “a place where she loses her sense of time and space,” through images shaped within the abstract geography of her inner world.
The Childhood Memory That Named the Exhibition
Babadağ’s artistic practice is based on an approach rooted in childhood memories, carrying autobiographical traces and characterized by an improvisational mode of creation. When she was only four years old, in response to her mother’s question, “What did you do here?” she replied, “Something that happened to the sun.” This answer today serves as both the exhibition’s title and a metaphor that shapes its overall spirit. It is significant because it represents an early intuition about the artist’s inner world and a linguistic simplicity. This childhood remark later transformed into an artistic concept, creating a connection between the artist’s personal memory and the viewer’s experience.
The exhibition features 25 works from the artist’s recent production. Alongside acrylic paintings on canvas, four digital prints are also presented to the audience. These digital works stand out as a new medium that Babadağ had previously experienced privately but is now sharing publicly through this exhibition. The combination of digital and traditional techniques expands the artist’s expressive possibilities.
Art as an Object of Memory
The formal language in the works draws attention with the way the figure and background sometimes intertwine, the balance between narrative and abstraction, and the blurring of boundaries. Babadağ’s art reflects the expression of emotional processes and inner states rather than a strictly figurative or abstract approach. This visual language, which could be described as fantastic realism, combines dreamlike elements with emotional projections of reality. In this respect, Babadağ’s work recalls the porous boundaries between art and psychological processes. The reimagining of suppressed or forgotten emotions through images transforms the works from mere aesthetic objects into fragments of emotional memory.
Melis Babadağ Hakkında
1984 yılında Ankara’da doğan sanatçı, lise eğitimini Üsküdar Anadolu Lisesinde tamamladı. Yetenek sınavında bölüm birincisi olarak girdiği Marmara Üniversitesi Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi İç Mimarlık Bölümünden 2006 yılında mezun oldu. 5 yaşında adım attığı tiyatro sahnesinde tüm eğitim hayatı boyunca deneyim kazanmaya devam etti. İş hayatının ilk yıllarında genç bir mimar olarak büyük çaplı projelerde yer alırken tiyatro ile başlayan sahne tutkusunu sinema ve dizi oyunculuğuna taşıdı. Bir dönem kariyerini iç mimarlık ve oyunculuk arasında eş zamanlı yürüten Babadağ, süreç içinde kamera önünde yoğunlaşma kararı aldı ve hayat verdiği karakterler ile tanınan bir isim hâline geldi.
Resim yapmaya 3 yaşında başlayan ve ilk yağlı boya eserini yaptığında ise 5 yaşında olan sanatçı; “Zamanı ve mekân algısını kaybettiği bir yer” olarak tanımladığı sanat yolculuğuna 2020 yılında yoğunluk vermeye başladı. Renkleri cesurca kullanan Babadağ, fantastik realizm tarzında yaptığı eserlerinde gerçeğin insandaki iz düşümünü ortaya koyarken kabuğunu kıran, sınırlarını zorlayan, hemen her formun birbiriyle bağlantıda olduğu, gerçeklik ile hayal gücünü bir araya getirdiği hikâyelerini tuvallerine taşıyor. Melis Babadağ, Sanatçı ve oyuncu kimliği ile yaşamına İstanbul’da devam ediyor.
For the full article: https://artdogistanbul.com/gunesin-basina-gelen-bir-durum/
