I born in 1979, Izmir,Turkey I graduated from Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting Department at Dokuz Eylul University and completed my M.A. in the same faculty.Now I am completed Ph.D. candidate at Sakarya University.My artistic practice in which I create my work exists within many layers (sociological/psychological) touching one another. The conceptual framework of my early works exists in a political area and deals with the sociopolitical history of Turkey, its multiculturalism, its identity creating multi vocality in terms of belonging and cultural democratization. I generally produce installations through which I can reach the whole from smaller parts. I use found objects, photographs, charcoal patterns etc. in order to create a personal archive (narrative) in a sense. Also, I create design objects based upon the social memory and senses. I like to collect “invisible stories” while creating my works. I believe that the whole can be defined as a travel in time made up of small fragments. I constantly feed my work in this way in their reckoning with and creating reality. While I build my body of work with retrieved images of cultural memory, I poetically include my own subjectivity to all these captivities. Issues of social injustice, resistance and politics of survival are raised not through my observation as an outsider, but from close range; a perspective precisely constructed by the practices of life. This stance, at times tragicomic, and at times built upon the relationship of patience and suffering, is tackled to be presented to the audience time and again, uninterrupted, and almost prayer like. Looking at Turkey’s cultural history, while focused on memory, individual and social identity research, my work shows an abstract trend towards poetic lyricism fed by internal reality.
© Mehmet Dere | Artist Biography, Artworks & Gallery | http://www.mehmetdere.com/
