LOOK INTO MY EYES
Drawings on paper, mixed technique, 50x35cm, 35x25cm, 2020-work in progress
Project web site: http://gozlerimebak.com/en/

Look Into My Eyes is a project by artist Sencer Vardarman, in collaboration with Demet Ortaköylüoğlu. Ortaköylüoğlu has made illustration portraits of animals that are under imminent threat of extinction. Utilizing methods that have been central to Vardarman’s practice such as cataloging and organizing information and research, the project is a visual manifesto: Each portrait not only serves as a document of that which might be lost too soon, but also as a warning and a demand for engagement.

The images for Look Into My eyes are extrapolations of realistic representations. In other words, these portraits of the animals are what could hold or sustain our empathy more effectively. Each animal is represented with their face and their faces have been visually interpreted to be charged with expressions that could be termed human-like. The eyes are larger, exaggerated in size. All of these visual manipulations are executed to engineer emotions of empathy and sympathy towards the animals that we see in a manner that is uniquely divergent from a documentary approach.

While there are over a million species that are under the threat of extinction, Vardarman has selected animals with whom we are more likely to empathize, thus leaving out numerous insects and fish. The viewers’ tendency to pay attention that which is easily recognizable as familiar and familial achieves a further layer of self-awareness.

The information that Vardarman actuates in this project is collected from many different sources, including the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™; while the information is readily available on-line, Vardarman has collaborated with biologist Kerem Ali Boyla and ecological economist Begum Ozkaynak to seek their advice in bringing the information and his interpretation together under the rubric of a web-based project in this manner. The availability of the project online further serves to underscore this act of channeling, activating, rerouting that which is already available as information out there in the world, drawing on scientific information and research to draw on this information, both literally and figuratively. With Vardarman’s artistic agency, this information becomes knowledge and knowledge is transformative.

The project has been supported by the Tarabya Cultural Academy and the Goethe Institute.