The Human Adventure by Magdalena Abakanowicz
at the Akbank Gallery in Istiklal Street, Istanbul, Turkey.
at the Akbank Gallery in Istiklal Street, Istanbul, Turkey.
The streets of Istanbul teem with crowds of people. Movement is often arrested by the sheer volume of people trying to move about the city. This makes Istanbul a perfect setting for the artwork of Magdalena Abakanowicz. Her installation includes groups of standing figures frozen in place. She states..."I feel overwhelmed by quantity where counting no longer makes sense. By unrepeatability within such quantity. A crowd of people or birds, insect or leaves, is a mysterious assemblage of variants of a certain prototype, a riddle of nature abhorrent to exact repetition or inability to produce it, just as a human hand can not repeat its own gesture.” Abakanowicz takes on the role of creator to give us a glimpse of this unending variability.
I am familiar with the development of Abakanowicz’ artwork, so the grouping in the lobby of Akbank fit my expectations. Her cast bronzes in “Walking Figures” are stiff and awkward representations of the human form. Even the surface textures created by her own hand did not breathe life into them. Placed within the context of the entire exhibition, they seem to be the first stage of a transition into an otherworldly realm.
The other sculptures, in the exhibition, range from figures reminiscent of classical Egyptian Gods to science fiction creations resembling Jar Jar Binks of Star Wars fame. This visual connection reminds me that the theme of mutability and variability has been explored throughout the ages. Gutron in Cage is a figure standing inside an enclosure of metal and wood beams. This post-genital species has a head like a hammerhead shark. Another group of figures have striking beak heads. The beak heads are part of a unit that includes the head and a shoulder cape. It appears to have been placed over one of her standard human forms. The title, Coexistence, suggests that we may have to find peace with the variations and mutations within ourselves and with others.
A display of busts makes the most sense to me conceptually, and leave me wondering if they are fully formed variations or deliberate deformations. They appear to be illustrations of how forms are pushed and pulled into shape by the creator’s hand.