Photographers

Ebru Erülkü started her series About London in early 2004. She found the mêlée of the city both disturbing and inspirational. Her images reclothed the familiar in vivid fictional clouds which alter perceptions and link the viewer with London’s dynamic past and uncertain future. By breaking out from the confines of time and space, Ebru unleashes an hitherto unexplored energy in our unconscious and our associations with reality and the familiar. Ebru works with an analogue camera and then digitalises her material to enable her to alter light, adjust contrast or add to the image. The degree of this intervention varies and may be minimal depending upon the idea. She believes that, whatever the instrument, the reality of what is seen in front of the lens changes to the new reality of the created image. Both realities have their own integrity. She strives to represent what we see and fuse this with the possibilities of what we might see. Ebru lives and works in London and Düsseldorf. Wolfram Bach, Düsseldorf, 2005, says of her work: "Using the camera and the technology on offer today in a flexible way, Ebru Erülkü achieves the transformation of metaphorical concepts into images. The resulting pictures, in the form of photographs, which one could equally imagine as paintings, are woven together from everyday events and those that transcend the everyday." From what is observed and what is imagined, perhaps, too, from what is dreamed and what is wished for. Beyond this, a further field of interpretation is offered; it lies within that indefinable no-man’s-land, somewhere between the normal and the absurd. The photographs seem to be the result of separated permeable projection planes; projected on both sides from different realms. Projections from the realm of reality are mixed with projections from the realm of imagination; projections from the realm of emotions penetrate projections from the realm of reason, projections from the realm of knowledge pair with projections from the realm of intuition. Thus, fabulously clear pictures are created. They do not document the outside world, but create and document their own reality. In this way, the observer is offered an elegantly and subtly well-defined spectrum of meanings; these he can interpret and also fill with his own meaning. Yet, Erülkü’s works possess a particular humour, which corresponds appropriately to the sobriety of the subjects and preserves the pictures from an all too meaningful and narrative interpretation. EDUCATION/GRANTS 2005 M.F.A. Photography – Royal College of Art, London 2005 The Red Mansion Foundation Art Prize RCA Society Prize 2004-05 Grant – Artfoundation Nordrhein-Westfalen 2003-04 D&AD Grant for Graduates, Great Britain 2001 Diploma studies ‘Visual Communication’ – University of Essen, Germany 1997-98 Elisava Escola Superior de Disseny – Barcelona, Spain – Erasmus-grant SOLO SHOWS 2004 Galerie 20.21, Essen, Germany 2001 Galerie Wolfram Bach, Düsseldorf, Germany GROUP SHOWS 2006 Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels (upcoming) Triangle Space, Chelsea College of Art, London, ‘Red Mansion Art Prize Show’ 2005 Galerie 20.21, Essen, ‘Ratatouille’ Hoopers Gallery, London, ‘RCA Summer Show’ Beldam Gallery, Brunel University, West London, ‘A sharp intake of breath’ 2004 Trade Apartment, London, ‘Überkurator 1’ Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Germany, ‘Warm up’ (class Prinz) European Parliament, Brussels, ‘Made in London’ 2003 Galerie 20.21, Essen + Kunstverein Bremerhaven, Germany, ‘Warm up’ 2002 Galerie Wolfram Bach, Düsseldorf, ‘after bathing at...rejoice’ Galerie Wolfram Bach, Düsseldorf, ‘mal sehen’ 2001 Art-award ‘Digitale Bildwelten’, Recklinghause, Germany 1998 Saarlandmuseum Saarbrücken + Schloßparkmuseum Bad Kreuznach, Germany Saar-Ferngas young art award 1996 Zimolong young art award, Gladbeck, Germany UK PRESS The Independent, 31.12.05 . ‘Talent 2006: Faces to watch’ The Times, 1.8.2005. Photography: ’They want to break free’