Chosen among 150 artists and represented Turkey
The works of Prof. Elvan Özkavruk Adanır, Head of Department of Textile and Fashion Design, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Izmir University of Economics (IUE), and Lecturer Angela Burns, were chosen among the works of 150 artists and represented Turkey in the virtual exhibition opened by the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA).
The works of Prof. Adanır and Burns were evaluated by the international jury in the exhibition under the name of "Visual Messages" held in the virtual environment due to the Covid-19 outbreak. In the evaluation made among 150 artists, Prof. Dr. Adanır and Burns managed to be among the 22 artists whose works were entitled to be exhibited. The exhibition, which is available at www.kunstmatrix.com until December 31, was opened for the first time in order to promote art and strengthen visual literacy. Artists from different disciplines such as painting, drawing, photography, printing and collage were featured in the exhibition opened after the annual conference of the International Visual Literacy Association.
TRACES REFLECTED TO THE PRESENT
Providing information about the exhibition and her work, Prof. Elvan Özkavruk Adanır, Head of Department of Textile and Fashion Design, said that the association organizes international conferences on visual literacy every year in a different country, and this year due to the epidemic, the conference was held online and a virtual exhibition was opened for the first time. Stating that the works in the exhibition were determined by the jury and that there is a visual message in all of the works, Prof. Adanır said, “As a textile artist, I find myself lucky to be living in Turkey where textile is very important in daily life. I use different techniques such as digital printing, serigraphy, embroidery, weaving, felt making, which I believe are the best techniques to express myself. In my work titled 'Once Upon a Time on This Planet 2' in the exhibition, I also used processing techniques on digital printing. In this work, thanks to digital printing, the bride and groom from 1962 returned to our digital world with embroidered expressions. Today we all take digital photos and mostly don't print them. You only have one chance to pose in old photos. The purpose of this work is to give more spirit, expression and color to old wedding photos. I am happy to represent my country among artists from different countries such as Japan, China, Belgium, Canada.”
DIGITAL TECHNIQUES
Lecturer Angela Burns from Department of Textile and Fashion Design stated that she took part in the exhibition with illustrations of two old factories in Northern Ireland. Burns said, “I combined these decaying buildings with historical maps of their location in this work. Using digital techniques, I redesigned the past and present as a whole.”