Selma Gürbüz

Tranny, 2004, Ink on handmade Nepalese paper, 140 x 70 cm

You may use the following excerpt from a text written by Haşim Nur Gürel for the exhibition Djinn and Fairy, held at Galeri Apel from 1 April to 1 May 2004, which also featured the work ”Tranny”:

“As I focus more closely on Selma Gürbüz’s recent images painted in ink on Japanese paper, one of the aspects that draws my attention is the predominance of works in which ‘Eastern’ motifs are placed within the outlines of ‘Western’ forms. Particularly in the field of visual arts, this also calls to mind Western painting, which was revitalised by drawing upon Eastern art whenever its own visual tradition reached an impasse.The images that Selma Gürbüz has increasingly refined and sharpened in recent years open countless gateways into the visual traditions of both the ‘East’ and the ‘West’. At the same time, they possess an evocative force, mystery, and power, unfolding before us like fortunes through which we may contemplate the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ aspects of the human spirit—its ‘fairy’ and ‘djinn’ dimensions.”