Process and Play: Alem Korkut

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In this temporary exhibition at the Split Art Gallery, the elements of process and play in Alem Korkut‘s work came to the forefront. The installation of slingshots, above, are at once reminiscent of childhood games and of walking through landmines. In addition to the playfulness on display, Korkut, currently living and working in Zagreb, also notably uses new media in his sculptural and installation artwork.

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I also enjoyed his merging of video and drawing, both in Birds and in Vibradrawings. In both, the end result is the product of traces of things, be they birds or chalkballs, and the course chartered is one of chance, not predetermined by the artist.

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His drawings also highlight process and sequence. Above, a series of photographs taken from a 360-degree point of view of a city square are mirrored by his chalk drawings below. The sheer number of images suggest a full, time-aware narration of the scene, almost like a film. The graphite sketches below also build on each other sequentially. In the first installation image, the drawings are in a linear row where each selects a landscape element to finally form a composite image. Beyond the row of them in the next gallery, you can see a large woodcut of the final composition of this artfully composed scene.

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