Istanbul’s Pera Museum has prepared a series of online programs, as part of its "Miniature 2.0, Miniature in Contemporary Art" exhibition, which focuses on contemporary approaches to miniature painting.
The programs continue with an art workshop on miniature drawings using watercolor and a talk on the architectural dimension of Ottoman miniatures. The talk, to be given by architect and visual designer Mete Kutlu, will be held on Sept. 16 between 7 p.m.-9 p.m.
The workshop, on the other hand, to be conducted by American visual artist, Gabrielle Reeves, will be organized on Sept. 30 during the same hours. The online events, to be held through Zoom, bring a new look to miniature art with different techniques such as watercolors and models.
The goal of the exhibition is to help art lovers enjoy themselves at home with its latest, online activities aimed at various age groups. Participants will explore different watercolor techniques in the artist workshop, inspired by the works in the exhibition and bring their own current interpretations of the miniature.
At the end of Kutlu’s talk, which focuses on the understanding of space in miniatures, participants will be sent a production guide and drawings in which they can make their own miniatures.
At the "Drawing Miniatures with Watercolor" workshop for those 18 and older, participants will examine landscape paintings in the exhibition with Reeves. After exploring the basic drawing and watercolor techniques such as color theory, color mixing and application processes, they will apply these new methods to their own drawings and create colorful and up-to-date interpretations of miniature art.
In his online talk, Kutlu will address the similarities between the spatial dynamics of the Ottoman perspective, which resists the perception of the modern world and the architecture of the digital era.
Comparing the "Ottoman perspective" with the "Renaissance perspective," the origin of the modern worldview, the speaker will examine the city designs of the Ottomans through different depictions of Hungarian cities, where two different civilizations face each other.
He will cast a light on the concept of "Digital Artisanry" and the sense of space in miniatures with his digital-based experimental works, featuring 3-D models, animations and origami.
In these times, when our sense of space has advanced from an era of handicrafts, spurred by humans’ supernatural dreams, toward an era of digital crafts, brought on by artificial intelligence's superhuman calculations, Kutlu will also explore the radical changes and future developments that await architects and urban residents.
Following the talk titled "Fragmented Architectural Space in Ottoman Miniature Art: Intercultural Interactions and Relationships Beyond Time," participants will be sent an origami drawing and production manual in digital format, where they can make their own model miniatures.