Sketches for a Paradise: A Distant Threat

Addressing gender roles, class identity, family structure, vulnerability, desire/pleasure, and sense of belonging in his works, Erinç Seymen offers a critical view of the historically established mechanisms of domination and the class-related control strategies that define and repress individuals. Focusing mainly on the mediums of drawing and painting in his practice, the artist creates spatial installations and new media works by making use of techniques such as silkscreen and digital print.

The series "Sketches for a Paradise", which consists of four prints made with the silk-screen technique, includes collages created by Seymen from the illustrations in 19th-century encyclopaedias. Examining issues of ownership, belonging, welfare and desire management, the series shifts its focus from the familial to the social scale, opening the idea of paradise to discussion. In this series, Seymen explores the relationship between the idea of paradise, seen through the lens of capitalist ideals, with colonial practices and a certain understanding of nature. Although the imaginary landscapes portrayed in "Sketches for a Paradise" seem exuberant and savage, they in fact generate a topography occupied by human beings and constructed to serve human desires. Approaching the idea of paradise in four stages, the work highlights the questions of invasion, exploration, invitation, settlement, and hospitality, while presenting a critical rendering of the colonialist’s relationship with a specific geography.