Turkish artist uses ‘tree’ as a mythical figure

Curated by Özlem İnay Erten, Ali Alışır's solo exhibition displays art works inspired by the image of a tree, which has been the subject of many myths for centuries, and has different meanings in different cultures and traditions. Alışır, who creates a beautiful and unique relationship between photography and painting, suggests alternative perspectives on the image of the tree through its recent context in political sociology. Representing deep and sacred meanings in esoteric cultures and legends, and seen as a connection point between the material and spiritual world, wisdom trees embrace a different world - social media and the Internet, at this exhibition.

In his review about the exhibition, Alışır said the image of nature and its most important part, trees, have now taken on a different dimension with recent technology. "We have a scene in our minds, which is all about imaginary and design, which is gradually taking the place of real nature. The scene does not look like the landscape paintings of Pissaro and Cezanne," he added. Alışır describes an environment surrounded with social media networks. "We are living in a world inviting us to continuously share. Today, we do not only transform nature with technology, but also add artificial components to it," he continued. His works showcase trees and nature nestled in internet networks, underscoring the fact that humans stay away from nature and create a virtual environment instead.

Alışır deals with how the information is deliberately taken from reality and then re-created and shared, using trees, the oldest and wisest symbol of information to accomplish this. Our transparent world is depicted with internet networks and a new scene has arisen, which has nothing useful behind it. The exhibition will run from Dec. 19 to Jan. 17 at Bozlu Art Project in Nişantaşı.

Who is Ali Alışır

Born in 1978, Alışır started to study graphics in 1996 at Yeditepe University Fine Arts Faculty with an achievement award. In 2006, He received a master's degree in photography from the Accademia Italiana in Florence. Alışır was at the top of his class and excelled in digital editing in photography. For the last five years, his art works have focused on virtual reality. He addresses social problems in different fields such as sociology, literature, cinema and philosophy through unique interventions on his photography work. Alışır employs different techniques to highlight the lack of information in the virtual world. He currently teaches at the Graphics Department of Yeditepe University Fine Arts Faculty. His work can be seen in special local and international collections of 94 embassies, Istanbul Modern and the Turkey's Presidential Palace.