Ania Yilmaz ~ The Possibility of an Island

Ania Yilmaz' "The Possibility of an Island" was presented before live audience at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy on August 4, 2024 as one of 38 AEROPONIC ACTS of CHAMELEON ORBIT curated by Elisa Giuliani & Giulia Crispiani.

Here you will find the documentation of Ania Yilmaz' presentation as filmed by Baha Görkem Yalım. The written report is by  Bethany Crawford and it includes a summary of the comments by esteemed guest respondents.

The Possibility of an Island

Ania Yilmaz' question: What can I ask from/to a painting?

Ania's introduction: I talk of a painting that is not there yet. I hope it will appear after  (more or less) 21 days of work. It is a painting made of recollections of other paintings, by me and others. It all started with a visit to a museum and an encounter with the heritage of a vase-painting workshop operating in the 3rd century BC, in the island of Lipari. This encounter sparked my artistic research into and around painters and vases, and one of the research’s results is this painting. It is rough and hasty and a little torn. Before it appears, I don’t know what it is. It will be painted on linen, using everything that is around (or not): white chalk, rabbit glue, kaolin, pigments, white wine, egg yolk, crayons, pencil, ink, pastel, acrylic. It might be a mess.

(ps: I stole the title from Michel Houellebecq)

Bethany's report: The performance takes the form of an exhibition of a series of evocative paintings, layered with movement, texture, and ambiguity. The paintings display a dynamic interplay of form and abstraction, blending human and animal figures with an almost dreamlike quality. The layering of figures creates a sense of movement and flux, as though the images are caught in the process of becoming. The muted palette is punctuated by vivid accents, guiding the viewer’s eye and creating focal points that suggest narratives within each piece.The use of texture and layering gives the works a tactile quality, drawing the viewer closer to observe the fine details. Some paintings feel raw and immediate, with bold, gestural strokes, while others are more subdued, their forms emerging slowly from the background.

Distributed alongside the paintings is a text that reflects on the act of painting itself, offering philosophical and poetic questions about process, temporality, and perception. It asks:

"How many times can we return to it to find something we haven’t seen yet? Is the painting a place or a placeholder? What is the duration of each brushstroke?”

The text speaks of the painter’s hesitations and repetitions, the journey of painting and its process, and the unfolding relationship between artist, painting, and audience. It compares the painting to a placeholder, a potential refuge, or even an island, emphasizing the temporal and emotional journey it offers. The audience becomes part of the process, embodying the act of return and reinterpretation. The presentation becomes not just an exhibition but an invitation to engage with the act of looking, perception and interpretation. The paintings and text combine to create a dialogue between viewer, artist, and painting, offering an introspective and communal experience.

Ramon Amaro: Ramon began his response by exploring how the paintings sparked thoughts about figuration and its historical and cultural implications. He remarked that thinking about figuration traditionally—through form and figure—often leads to considerations of how bodies and identities are represented. He noted that much of this historical focus has centered on the feminine figure, often dissected and portrayed as part of a trajectory toward ideals of beauty and taste. However, Ramon clarified that this wasn’t the direction he wanted to dwell on for this work.

Instead, he shifted to thinking about the paintings through a Gestalt perspective, focusing on the relationship between figure and ground. He referenced Gestalt theory and psychoanalytic tools like the Rorschach test, where ambiguous shapes prompt viewers to interpret meaning. He connected this to the paintings’ ability to blur the lines between figure and background, creating moments where they become indistinguishable. This dynamic, Ramon suggested, forces the viewer to think differently about the interaction between these elements.

Ramon referenced artists like Kara Walker, who use monochromatic palettes to construct scenes that lack a clear beginning or end, creating meditative narratives. He saw parallels in how the works in the exhibition flattened and opened up the traditional distinctions between figure and ground, offering a heterogeneity not just in their presentation but also in the artist’s process. He noted the interplay between materials, pigments, and subject matter, which seemed to negotiate with one another in a fluid and temporal way.

Drawing on Heidegger’s philosophy, Ramon observed how the artist’s engagement with tools—like the paintbrush—allowed for a process rooted in the moment, where the outcomes weren’t predetermined. This openness created what he described as a “fluid unfolding,” enabling a continuous negotiation that resists clear beginnings, endings, or linear progressions. He praised the work for its ability to situate the viewer in a present moment of possibility without inducing a fear of missing out on its origins or conclusions. Instead, the viewer is invited into the ongoing "now" of the work’s evolution.

Ramon connected this temporal fluidity to a sense of futurism embedded in the paintings, describing them as representative of simultaneous temporalities and perspectives. He likened the pieces to book covers for an Octavia Butler novel, evoking visions of Afrofuturism and speculative futures while remaining grounded in the present.

He concluded by reflecting on the artist’s approach to releasing their works into the world, comparing it to an idea of objects or thoughts being captured and transformed by others. Ramon described this as a kind of generosity, where the artist allows their works to be absorbed, rearticulated, and reshaped by viewers. He saw the artist as someone who carries the present moment for others, creating space for viewers to engage with the pieces at their own pace, offering both connection and possibility.

Antonia Majaca: Antonia began her response by commending Ramon’s reflections, describing them as brilliant and fully aligning herself with his insights. She expressed gratitude for the depth of his analysis, emphasizing how it captured the complexity of the works—their capacity to be both nightmarish and liberatory at the same time.

Antonia offered her own perspective, introducing an anecdote about her daughter as a way to illustrate the paintings' themes of multiplicity and endlessness. She recounted how her daughter once wanted all the rubber ducks from a store, insisting that having only one was meaningless. For her daughter, the ducks only made sense as part of a sea of endless duckies. Antonia connected this to the paintings, observing that they similarly play with duplicity and multiplicity, creating a sense of boundlessness. The works evoke an endless human chain, an interconnectedness that could stretch infinitely across time and space.

She reflected on the different dynamics within the paintings, noting how the moments between paired figures or groups felt distinct from others, such as those depicting horse heads or bodies holding trays of eggs, pearls, or stones. Antonia highlighted specific pieces that fascinated her, such as the green painting with the yellow cloud, which she described as representing "the great merger of all subjectivities." This cloud, along with the yellow yarn-like weaving within the composition, seemed to her like an eternal chain of humanity, punctuated by the presence of a white dove.

She also remarked on the ritualistic and enigmatic qualities present in the paintings, pointing to elements like cosmos-like patterns, water hoses, and the enigmatic gestures and compositions that defied simple interpretation. For Antonia, these works existed in a space where ritual, multiplicity, and the weaving of humanity converged, creating a deeply evocative and expansive visual experience.

Inti Guerrero: Inti began his response by drawing a connection to a conference he attended, Is the Living Body the Last Thing Left Alive? Conference on Performance, organized by Parasite, an art space in Hong Kong. He explained how this conference, and the subsequent book that followed, explored new trends in performance art. He recounted that while the book complemented the conference papers, the editors found limitations in discussing the body purely through text. To address this, they commissioned visual art—pages of images—to complement and expand upon the textual discussions. Inti saw a parallel in this approach to the way the paintings in this exhibition open up possibilities for interpretation and figuration.

He remarked on the power of the works to enable multiple perspectives and projections, offering space for personal interpretations that can vary widely. For instance, he noted how Ramon had connected the paintings to Afrofuturism, a lens Inti might not have considered but found equally valid. He described this openness as arising from the anarchic and archaic nature of the works, which invite a fluidity of thought without imposing a single narrative.

Inti also reflected on the ceremonial and ritualistic aspects of the paintings, connecting them to themes of mysticism, animism, and alchemy that he has discussed in relation to other presentations by colleagues. He noted the compositions’ layered and overlapping elements, some of which include horizon lines, creating a sense of alternate worlds or planetary spaces. This otherworldly quality, he observed, contributes to the works’ capacity to evoke mystique, mysticism, animism and some of these themes he’s seen recurring through performances over the last couple of days.

AEROPONIC ACTS 2024 ~ Chameleon Orbit