Bursting from the white walls of Schmick Contemporary comes a dialogue between culture and history. Multidisciplinary artist Tarik Ahlip’s current exhibition Kara Toprak reminisces on bright frescoes, almost seemingly ripped off the wall with the plaster intact. Walking into the space, one automatically feels enraptured by the triptych – with only the gallery window being a reminder of a world outside of this meditative plaster.
The work speaks to current events, highlighting personal connections to Lebanon, as if recreating memories of spaces and relics before their destruction by Israeli air strikes. Kara Toprak itself means ‘black earth’, and further references a poem of the same name by Turkish folk poet, Âşık Veysel (1894-1973).
The poem is a powerful ode to Veysel’s devotional connection with the earth, a special bond that exists between humans and the natural world, as well as the poet’s journey in finding light through ground spirituality. Ahlip’s sculptures capture this mood perfectly, sensing a journey through its depiction of the skeletal leaf, headless human and a stick or bone form wrapped in gold.
It’s almost a circular relationship; through the provided text, the audience is able to create a narrative for these pieces.
The starkness of the space creates an atmosphere of reverence, the pieces on the walls reveal layers of plaster and sand, almost as if they were ancient relics taken straight off the walls of vibrant ruins. The window in the space, which opens up to a bustling central George Street, feels like its own figure. The natural light reflects specks of sand and gold, bathing the sculptures in a blinding halo. It is through the simplicity of the space that the bright crimson and turquoise hues of the sculpture After the Drinking Scene bounce off the wall, its brightness instantly reminiscent of classical Middle Eastern adornments.
In Ahlip’s accompanying text, this narrative through word is perfectly visualised in the sculptures and is a must-read to further an understanding and to gain closer empathy with the work. Part diary entry and part poem, the text ingrains the individual sculptures with a decisiveness, the leaf instantly transforms into a cedar tree and the last bone-like figure has new animalistic properties.
Read: Exhibition review: Nature of Nature: Mike Makatron, Backwoods Gallery
With the constant devastating news cycle around the world, Kara Toprak is a refreshing ode to ideas of homeland and memory, as the poem itself reminisces: “I tore its face with my hands, It again welcomed me with roses. My faithful beloved is black soil.”
Tarik Ahlip: Kara Toprak will be exhibited at Schmick Contemporary, Sydney until the 30 November 2024.
