Apr 11 - May 31, 2008 Frankfurt am Main
Feb 14 - Apr 05, 2008 New York

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Kerim Aytac
*1979 British Turkish

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Ebb and flow, trace and transit: the photography of Kerim Aytac
Aytac seems to resist clichés of composition, resist the 'good' shot he has taken before. Instead he seeks out small, incidental, sometimes even unremarkable goings-on. At times the work brings to mind Robert Frank or Walker Evans. But in fact these images adopt more of an in-between viewpoint; alongside an American low picturesque there is also nostalgia for the French semi-abstract black-and-white tradition. The B&W also serves to bring everything to an equal formal level; layers of reflections, markings and traces dissolve into the surface on the brink of the recognisable. As a viewer you have to struggle to identify individual elements, which resist, like embedded ciphers.

There is a lo-fi, wistful, solitary feel, every shot drawing attention to something residual, fragmented, partial or fleeting. Always an absence of information and narrative, always something withheld. Like the shot of numbers from some unknown sequence on a wall, we don't get the whole "picture"; neither, perhaps, does the artist. With the environments overwhelmingly unpeopled and bleak, any person stepping into or out of the shot remains anonymous, in transit. And, crucially, just as these people have no particular identity, the spaces they interrupt are also interchangeable: rather than portray specific places, Aytac is looking for certain kinds of places, the ones that exist in pockets of every city.

Seen as a collection, some shots are very gratifying while others are neither legible nor particularly generous. This makes for a certain kind of ebb and flow. For instance, with certain very close and blurred images, there is no edge, no hard line, no point of reference. It is extremely disarming to look at them, or try to, without getting a proper handle on them. Then, abruptly, he throws in a perfect, enigmatic, almost cinematic snapshot, because he can. This jars because on the one hand, you are given nothing, no subject, no way in. On the other, there is this film still, faintly suggesting action, or the passing of time. And then there is the space in between these, uneasy, disorientating, confounding - the artist's own space, where he himself is in fact most at ease.

In all this, there is something very discreet, subtle. These are quiet photos: even when film is referenced, there is no soundtrack, no conversation, no embellishment. There is no manipulation or seduction here - far from it. Some are even quite casual, vernacular, involuntary, just above banality - where the artist seems almost to defy aesthetics altogether. Fortunately for us, the photograph itself is spared.
 

by Kate Keara Pelen

Artist

Biography

Born 1979, British / Turkish
1997 - 2002 Goldsmiths College (University of London)
BA Media and Communications (Cinematography and Film)
MA Image and Communications (Photography)

Photography
[S] Solo- / [G] Group-Exhibition
2008   'tokyo hotel', Galerie Poller, Frankfurt a.M. [S]
2008   'tokyo hotel', Galerie Poller, New York [S]
2007   'Contemporary Istanbul', by Celina Lunsford Photo-Art. Frankfurt am Main [G]
2007   Featured in seesaw magazine, August 2007
2006   Selected from Photofolio Reviews for exhibition at Rencontres d' Arles 2006
2006   Represented by Millennium Images
2002   Menier Gallery, London Bridge as part of Goldsmiths MA show, London
2002   'Kamikaze' (Kerim Aytac, Justin Coombes, Shun-Lung Chung, Katy Dawkins,
          Joe Duggan, Sarah Evans, Marc Goodwin, Patrick Kelly, Ilona Karwinska,
          Hala El Koussy, Francisco Lopez, Evi Peroulaki, Urzula Rapacka, Tomas
          Stargardter, Doris Vanistendael, Douglas White), independent group show at
          Century Gallery & Mafuji Gallery, London, UK [G]

Cinematography
2000   'Uncle Harry’s', 13mins, Super 16mm, Colour
          'Uncle Harry’s' screened as part of British Short Film Festival 2000
1998   'Break', 10mins, Super 8mm, Digitally enhanced B/W
1997   'Soul Shoes', 20mins, VHS-C and Super 8mm, Colour, B/W

 © Kerim Aytac & GALERIE POLLER
Brückenstrasse 9-11   60594 Frankfurt am Main   Germany   Phone +49(0)69-624042   mail-ffm@galerie-poller.com
547 West 27th Street, 2nd Floor   New York   NY 10001   USA   Phone (212) 967 5700    mail-nyc@galerie-poller.com  
www.galerie-poller.com