The Reality as an Illusion – Illusion as a Reality

I was asked to write a text about my works in the Camouflage series. When I began to write the text, it began to make me think on the vegetal world and the struggle in life. I couldn't stop writing and decided to discontinue it.

How can we talk about a work of art without using concepts? What was needed was to explain a thought on form. How could the world explain the union between the form and the life?
I felt divided between the tow.
I thought that it would be better if I tried to explain which fundamental points caused me to create these works.

It could be possible to examine these large-scale collage works within the scope of a conceptual triangle.

Illusion, reality and camouflage
Illusion is fundamentally a deficit in thought and a misperception regarding thought and seeing. Misperception or illusion is how people perceive objects or stimuli adopting an incorrect approach. In other words, it is a way of escapism.

The illusion is a puzzle presented to the eye, the thought and the brain. When people are disappointed, illusions stop being illusions and only then can they be understood as they are. Until then, they are possessed as firm knowledge or emotions.  That’s why, while talking about illusions, we are talking about the pasts of ourselves and others.

In Shakespeare’s famous work, the three soothsayers tell Macbeth that he needs to fear nothing until the trees in the forest start marching to his castle like soldiers, even though he is a false king.

Tyrann, who hears this, claims that such a thing is not possible since it would not be possible for anyone to domineer the trees and ravel out their roots, which extend deep down the ground.
„The Tree Soldier “ concerns this subject matter.

How is illusion created and what makes it look so real?
Why do people need it? Why do illusions end?
What remains incomplete after disappointment and how can it be resolved?
What is the principle difference between harmful and harmless dreams?
Ludwig Wittgenstein summarizes that illusion will never perish from the societies with the following words:
"We can think of something that perishes. There is nothing that is unthinkable with symbols that are out of reality. We may construct thoughts with our own phenomena. We may find signs. Even think out about death and after death by finding symbols has always been something that human beings have been interested in. For this reason, illusion is first and foremost an anthropological fundamental existence. It is not possible to think of human beings and societies without illusions.”
Wittgenstein also emphasizes the role illusion plays in art.

However it is also sometimes not possible for people to rid themselves of their illusions as if these acted as  drugs. There have been leaders, groups and people who have taken great risks for great ideals. They risked everything for the cause they believed in and have caused the destruction hundred and thousands of people, even themselves. It may be possible to explain the collapse of great civilizations with states and individuals losing themselves in great illusions.

Hitler is one such example.

I started the “Spielzeug (Toy Tank)” work because I was curious what kind of a world was presented to children. Which enemy can the child firing toy tanks be experiencing the illusion of destroying? Are these toys are produced for the purpose of creating imaginary enemies in children? Both the tank and the space in which it is located is composed of many insects and plants coming on top of each other. I think that this imaginary space resembles a crazy and disorderly world.

We are also face to face with a space covered with circles of mist opening up a new concept of emptiness.

“Exploded Still Life”
Real spaces contain and interior and a deeper interior still. In order to see, one has to look and in order to look, one has to penetrate inside the phenomena.

This resembles the questioning of the reality of inside and behind a forest view with which everyone is familiar.

Behind us is a geometrical wall that questions the eternity. Behind it is another room and when we look through a hole, we meet yet another reality. An explosion and another reality. A tank fires off. When the viewer look carefully, he/she can see that this is just a toy war machine.
Above all these layers is another layer that resembles tulle covering. This covering is a personal one. It is caused by the formal thought that lies underneath. It’s not a special formal repertoire. Here, the motif is revealed as a thought. Is what’s being conveyed here the fact that everything, the desired silence and maybe even the peace is an illusion? Can this be called a covering that blurs the space, namely forest scenery that seems real, and questions it?

„Silence of Landscape“
Seeing reality and the illusion simultaneously; it is as if death is a flying carpet here. The eye moves ahead in it. This picture contains a variability and movement that can not be expressed in photography. People notice the scenery from different perspectives with different perceptions.

This is forest scenery in which we are enclosed. This scenery consists of moving frame heads placed on top of each other. The bodily distinction turns into the scene of isolation and beauty. At the end of this arrangement is the eternity where everything will come to an end.

“Camouflage”
Camouflage is a method frequently utilized to ensure misconception. This cunning playfulness existent in nature is a system that contains the illusion of self protection and the capturing of the prey. The techno-economic logic has enforced all identities to integrate with its system of economy and aesthetics. Many things are hard to determine whether they've been realized in reality or artificially. We have to put our personal lives in order frequently by putting on the masks of other identities. It is as if different identities and different lives help us protect ourselves and think in the midst of the rapid flow of the city life. Nobody can claim that they have not used the different masks of life.

“Camouflage” contains within it a symbol in which both nature and death hide together.

It is an absolute and unequal world. It’s as if we’re going on a boat of illusions. We need to have an extraordinary point of view that we can use as paddles in order for us to realize that we’re on a boat. Is it not possible for use to realize that the scenery we’re looking at actually is not true and is actually a misperception. Can we wait for the arrival of a vision that will change modern slavery and the world? Will a perspective change based on the idea of the future be possible? Is the thought of future a utopia? Is there an end to our needs? Don’t we need to think every once in a while that life is short and that death is inevitable?

The works exhibited here concerning the subject matter of “Camouflage” have been produced with a point of view emphasizing the importance of the idea of stillness in a period when everything is directed towards speed and extremeness. Standstill may be a weak but significant act. Just like setting sails against the thought of not stopping even for a moment.

We need concepts and forms in order to see the world.
This may also be called the renaming and reviewing the spaces and locations.

Azade Köker
October 2010