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From a young age, Emre Özakat (1987) has been fascinated by digital media. After studying audiovisual arts at art school, however, he turned his focus to painting. In his work, he merges the fleeting nature of online images – which inundate us on a daily basis – with the slowness of painting. This results in alienating paintings that recall something that no longer exists or, in the physical world – may never have existed at all. At the same time, they confront the viewer with the transience of contemporary society.
Özakat sources his digital photographs online. They range from images of machine components and broken devices to toys and old tools: anonymous photographs that drift like ghosts though the fringes of the worldwide web and are often ignored, partly due to their low resolution. By translating these digital images into oil paint, he draws them into the physical world – a world in which they can no longer be clicked away and instead invite a more attentive mode of looking.
The work presented at Prospects is composed of multiple image fragments. Because these fragments are distorted, they evoke a sense of unease. They are partly recognizable, yet also seem to inhabit an in-between world to which access is denied. Özakat explains: ‘Through painterly obscuration, I aim to evoke a sense of temporary disruption, in which images hover between recognition and disappearance. The horizontal, fragmented format of the work mirrors the logic of a corrupted file or fragmented data stream, transforming fleeting digital debris into a physical, enduring presence.’
Written by: Esther Darley