Icons of Istanbul

The icons that Sarkis began making from 1986 onwards are small-scale stagings placed in frames gathered from different histories, geographies, beliefs, and cultures. As with the first icon the artist created in memory of Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986), these works contain a variety of materials, including watercolour paintings, photographs, grains of rice, fingerprints, small note papers, candles and stamps. Some of these framed pieces, now more than 200 in number, are Istanbulite frames, born or found in Istanbul. This series of works presented in frames made of wood, copper and silver, watermarked, with wickerwork, latticed, inlaid, carved, gilded, pearly, sea shelled, round, square, or oval in shape. Like most of Sarkis’ works, the way in which the Icons are exhibited varies according to the space and the context in which they are located. At times, they are almost hidden from the audience, placed within a wooden structure resembling a narrow corridor or a huge crate with tiny windows. At others, they repose safely in display cases. And sometimes, with a more classical approach, we see them hanging on the walls of a museum. This series joined the Arter Collection in 2013 to be conserved as a whole under the title Icons of Istanbul.