I feel alive when I produce, sculptor says

Sculptor Neşe Koçak, who greets art lovers with her exhibition titled "İzler" (Traces) at the Ankara SEPA Art Gallery, noted that she feels alive when she produces her work. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Koçak noted that she feels art enriches and expands her inner world, while offering a side that soothes her spiritual nature and calms her down. "Even though it seems like I work with material and non-living materials, they are much more than just solid objects to me," Koçak added.

Her works are the result of extensive research, and she uses materials she has collected over the years in her work, which, in the end, she feels preserve the soul of the past. Previously working with Avanos and Kayseri stones in her college years, Koçak currently prefers porcelain and china clays because of their fragile characteristics in combination with their ability to endure fire, two qualities she associates with her inner world.



"When I start working on a sculpture, my hands shake, and I get excited every time. I usually doubt whether I will be able to do it. I feel that my previous works have been created with magic, which I have somehow lost. I look at my previous works and feel as if I can never produce anything else ever again. This happens all the time. Since this is the case, the energy rising from this fear mixed with excitement forces me to reach for something better, search for the new," Koçak said about her production process.

The philosophy of artists is not to make plans in order not to be disappointed as "life is not a straight path" as she puts it. "Sometimes things that hurt us or make us happy happen very unexpectedly. Since this is the case, life gives me small and sometimes big surprises," Koçak said.



About her artwork at the exhibition, Koçak noted that materials with traces of a past lives and experiences are exciting to her. She likes using two different materials and chooses the materials to accompany ceramic mostly from worn-out rusty metals that have exhausted their shelf life.

Using mostly old forks and spoons on porcelain-egg forms, Koçak stated that, while eggs symbolize life, knives and spoons symbolize women and men. "Mankind is only there for a second in life. They leave a tiny impression, a trace. If we were to summarize the main theme of the exhibition in one sentence, it would be: 'Existence, the touch of existence, traces of this touch," Koçak said.

The sculptor sees clay, wood, metal, along with all other materials as tools for self-expression so that she can hold on to life more. Koçak received philosophy training after she graduated from Erciyes University, Fine Arts Faculty, Sculpture Department, and has been writing stories ever since. Highlighting that writing is a form of life, and a passion she can never give up on, Koçak said, "My artwork are the traces of the universe that I try to comprehend with the unlimited imagination in my soul, symbols that came to life with my fingers. My inner world shapes my art, and art nourishes my soul. It's a mutual exchange. Maybe I am trying to communicate and prove my existence by creating."

Koçak also added that working in two different areas of art sometimes causes problems in focusing, and she takes shelter in her workshop when she is tired of working or vice versa. She has been featured in 13 mixed and five personal exhibitions all around Turkey. "Traces" can be visited until Jan. 31.