The exhibition Poetry Visions, created through the meeting of colour and line by Spanish illustrator and artist Jesús Cisneros and illustrator and artist Merve Erbilgiç — founder of the independent publishing house and educational platform Shhhbooks — took place at Bant Mag. Havuz / Bina between September 16 and October 8. Produced through traditional methods, the drawings in this collection carry the artists’ personal traces and explore provocative, poetic, and sensitive themes with ideas and identities of their own. On the opening evening, composer and cellist Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu presented a half-hour electro-acoustic performance created for the exhibition.
Jesús Cisneros describes his works in the exhibition in these words:
Poetry always presents a certain challenge from the perspective of illustration. The images contained in each poem — often elusive, mental images — carry a kind of resistance when compared with the visuals proposed by the illustrator, which are more material, more concrete. Yet this difficulty also contains a challenge: to find images that do not limit the meaning of the poems, but accompany them, open them in some way, expand them in a certain direction… A poem lives a different life in each reader.
These drawings correspond to the mystical and ascetic poetry anthology Llama de amor viva (The Living Flame of Love), in which I followed two paths in order to depict the sacred: nature and colour. Images of nature run through a wide range of poems — represented by a flower, a seed, a forest, a tree… Nature, as metaphor, becomes part of the narrative of the sacred; the earthly and the mystical come together through representations of fruit, garden, and paradise. The colours assigned to each writer are connected to the spirit of their poems and suggest a particular tone: red for passion and pain; gold for the colour devoted to ritual; black for night, nocturnal flight, intimacy; blue for the air-spirit that seeks the sky, the ineffable…
In this way, I associated red with Santa Teresa de Jesús, gold with Fray Luis de León, black with San Juan de la Cruz, and blue with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. The anthology opens with a poem by Santa Teresa, portrayed with a flower and its thorn, and closes with Sor Juana, through the image of a palm tree that longs to grow toward the sky, beyond the enclosed boundaries of a convent.
Here is how Merve Erbilgiç reflects on her works in Poetry Visions:
When making images for books, I often choose poetry. It is open-ended and limitless. In this way, it offers me a space where I can think about both my own world and freedom. For two years, I focused intensely on one of the major voices of Turkish literature, Orhan Veli. The poet’s simple yet powerful language and use of everyday objects allow young readers to find something of themselves. These drawings are from a picture album: Orhan Veli: Selections from Children’s Poems.
The drawings were produced using a mixed technique that includes oil pastel, Indian ink, watercolour, pencil, and Photoshop. My aim was to create a visual language that was both mature and childlike, in keeping with Orhan Veli’s singular style. In some of my drawings, I used the lithographic method known as Istanbul stone (also called Küfeki stone). These stones were also used in old Istanbul apartment buildings. I brought contrasting colours together in order to give life a childlike and realistic appearance.
Grey represents the old days of Istanbul and the honest reality of life. Vivid colours were used for a childlike perspective and an unbounded joy of living.
Among the elements I bring into the drawings are surrealism, dreamlike expressions, absurdity, and a sense of aesthetics. When making illustrations for books, I prefer to introduce my own world into the book and leave some things unresolved, in order to encourage the reader to use their own imagination.
During this period, I often went to Burgazada. The island still feels very close to the old days of Istanbul. On Burgazada, I observed the old buildings, the cats, the local residents, and the rhythms of their everyday lives. I studied the behavioural patterns of the cats on the island — one of Istanbul’s symbols.
The existence of two independent languages is very exciting for me; literature and visual arts intertwine and suggest a third. This artist’s album is intended not only for children, but for everyone who needs it.
Photos: Alexey Konin
