Ergül cengiz, selbst-ähnlichkeit

In her second solo exhibition at gallery Françoise Heitsch, Munich, Ergül Cengiz (1975) displays her latest works on canvas which reveal an intense preoccupation with aesthetics and identity. Embedded in floral and arabesque ornaments, her themes remain in the sphere of figuration and extended narratives; hence creating a distinctive connection to personality and cultural origin; additionally allowing for a comprehensive view beyond figurative constraints. Her cultural background and her studies of stylistic elements associated with the Orient are interwoven with imagery specific for occidental painting; consequently, the spectator is drawn into the culminating world of her global perception. Crowds, birds, flowers or animals occupy the primary composition of the canvas depicted as either dominating ornaments, oriental tile and carpet designs, or abstract illusionistic patterns, which convey an affinity to Optical Art from the 60s. Ergül Cengiz combines two culturally distinct artistic modes and facilitates a symbiosis of these two assumptions by permeating them equipollently; thus, circumventing the ambiguous position of having to decide between thesis and antithesis. Ergül Cengiz searches for balanced viewing patterns comprising simultaneously the Orient and the Occident, thereby, moving like a silent metronome which unites consistently and effectively two divergent centres.