"CLAY TAUGHT ME TO LOOK AT LIFE POETICALLY..."

Artist and academic Prof. Burcu Ozturk Karabey has been shaping ceramic clay for thirty years. She believes that working with clay has given her the ability to think deeply, to look at life poetically, and to focus on details. As we began our interview with Karabey, we discussed her ceramic works and her perspective on this art form, and she sent everyone greetings from Halicarnassus.

FATMA BATUKAN BELGE

I'd like to begin by saying "Hello" to you from Halicarnassus, Bodrum, Mugla, the city of King Mavzolos, his sister Artemisia, historian and geographer Herodotus, Admiral Turgutreis, the Fisherman (Cevat Sakir Kabaagacli), Ilhan Berk, and many other important figures and artists. Thank you also for including me in this issue for an interview.

We appreciate your time. How did your interest in ceramics begin? Do you have a story that begins with, "As a child, I used to make things out of clay"?

I've had an interest in art since a young age. The environment and people one encounters are as important as the land one is born into in shaping a person's life. In middle school, my art teacher recognized my interest in painting and always encouraged me to paint. She would submit my paintings to competitions, frame them, and hang them on the school walls. Being an introvert, I was a bit shy. I won my first award in a painting competition I participated in while in middle school. Because my generation had the opportunity to play outside and experience the neighborhood culture, like many of my peers, I was able to play with my friends in the streets and at school, and while playing, I discovered clay. We played games like fivestones and hopscotch, and we also created games with the natural materials around us. Therefore, I can say that I first encountered clay while playing as a child.

Before I even started school, I took a trip to Cappadocia with my family at a young age. It was there that I first saw ceramics workshops. Years later, while preparing for university, I decided to study at the Faculty of Fine Arts and took the aptitude tests, and my family supported me. I had listed almost all the plastic arts fields in my preferences. Art was a unified whole, and I could study anything—painting, sculpture, ceramics—as long as I had an art education, I thought. I was accepted into the Ceramics Department at Hacettepe University and the Graphics Department at Bilkent University. I decided to study at the Hacettepe University Ceramics Department. Initially, I didn't have any in-depth knowledge of ceramics, but after I entered the department, I fell in love with it with curiosity and passion. Of course, she was the ceramic artist Prof. Hamiye Colakoglu who touched my life at that time, sparking my curious and passionate love for art.

Were there any other people who influenced you as much as Prof. Hamiye during your training?

During my first year at university, all faculty students took shared courses in mixed classes, giving me the opportunity to learn from and get to know all the esteemed faculty members. At the institution where I studied, I had the opportunity to meet Prof. Hamiye Colakoglu, Prof. Sitki Erinc, Prof. Kaya Ozsezgin, Prof. Zafer Gencaydin, Prof. Hasan Pekmezci, Prof. Nazan Sonmez, my faculty and department professors, and many other invaluable artist mentors. Beyond my university studies, Tuzum Kizilcan, Mustafa Tuncalp, Prof. Gungor Guner, Binay Kaya, Prof. Beril Anilanmert, Prof. Sevim Cizer, and Prof. Zehra Cobanli were invaluable artists who touched my life. Over the years, I've also had the opportunity to meet many artists in the art community, both domestically and internationally. I learned invaluable lessons from each of them. I was both a student and assistant of Prof. Hamiye Colakoglu. In addition to her education, she especially impressed me with her artistic personality. I was always proud to be her student. May she rest in peace.

When you look at your works, we mostly see black and white. Sometimes blues also make an appearance. Do you prioritize form over color?

Yes, I don't have a particularly color-conscious approach. However, after settling in Bodrum, the influence of the sea and marine life brought shades of blue into my work. In my formal language, a permeable structure, sometimes texture, and sometimes painterly influences can take center stage. Nature always fascinates me. I embrace the narrative of form, a primitive and lyrical approach, in reflecting my feelings about life. I deeply value the sea and marine life. For me, the sea symbolizes freedom and hope. My latest exhibition, "Ocean Sense," focuses entirely on these topics and themes. I've previously explored sailors' knots. These themes focused on the phenomenon of migration and the challenges of marine life.

Again, focusing on content, what subjects inspire you to create?

As I mentioned earlier, I try to reflect my feelings about life in my work, almost like a diary. Looking back from the very beginning to the present day, I see traces of my personal history. The digital age and fast-paced life no longer allow us to pause and reflect. As Chul Han stated, a performance-based lifestyle, and the resulting grip of a tired society, are common problems for people all over the world. I create my work based on the details, forms, and thoughts that allow me to pause, breathe, and focus on my surroundings. For example, construction in Bodrum is affecting the lives of the wild animals and wild boars in the region. Lately, I've been working on wild boar patterns alongside my ceramic work. Despite increasing environmental and marine pollution, sea waves pounding rocks and submarine geology can be my subjects of study. Nature and marine life are places where we can breathe, and unfortunately, we are depleting them. I believe that in the digital age, humans can remain human without becoming robots through their creativity, capacity for deep thought, and intuitive sensitivity. The imaginative power of art, as it has in the past and today, will continue to offer a glimpse into humanity as a being of meaning. I believe Picasso's words, "Art is a lie that helps us understand reality," beautifully illustrate the power of the image in art.

Let's talk a little more about the impact the sea and its life have on you. As an artist born, raised, and educated in Ankara, how do you feel about being close to the sea in Mugla?

Being from Ankara is incredibly precious; the capital of our Republic, with its founding Parliament Building, Republican-era architecture, Anitkabir, Anatolian Civilizations, Painting Sculpture, and Ethnography museums, universities, Ataturk Forest Farm, Opera House, Presidential Symphony Orchestra, and many other elements, is the city where I was born and raised. It holds a very important place in my personal history. I spent a period of my childhood in the Aegea due to my father's profession, so sea life, along with Ankara, has been a part of my life and memories since childhood. After working for 15 years in the Ceramics Department at Hacettepe University's Faculty of Fine Arts, I reconnected with the sea in 2012 when I moved to Mugla and began working at Mugla Sitki Kocman University's Bodrum Faculty of Fine Arts. The sea is reflected in my work; it represents freedom for me. But it also encompasses the stories of migrants who died at sea, the difficult and challenging stories of fishermen and sponge divers who earn their living from the sea, and the attitudes of today's consumerist population who treat nature and the environment recklessly.

To better express myself, I'd like to share with your permission an excerpt from the catalogue of my latest exhibition: "We live in a fast-paced, melancholic time; we have neither the time nor the sensitivity left to notice the wind caressing our skin, the dewdrop on a leaf, the sea sulking, the cloud smiling, the earth rejoicing… The boundless ocean, which triggers our curiosity through exploration, while frightening us, also harbors a sense of peace. It evokes feelings of the unknown, uncertainty, grandeur, infinity, and freedom, as well as tranquility. As we confront our boundless loneliness, we can set aside the anxieties and passions of life and surrender ourselves to the oceanic feeling of freedom in the sea… to become one with nature… The works in this exhibition invite all viewers to forget our habits of fast living and consumption, to be in the moment, to contemplate deeply, to move with the rhythm of the planet and all living things in nature, and to harmonize with nature."

If I were to ask you what the most challenging and most beautiful aspects of ceramics are…

Every stage of ceramics is challenging… Preparing the clay, shaping it, drying it, retouching it, firing it, photographing it, glazing it, packaging it, exhibiting it, sharing your work with the public, etc. The most beautiful and special part is the moment you open the kiln… Even though you know what you'll get from experience, the excitement is still indescribable.

As someone who shapes clay, how has it shaped you, and what has it taught you?

I've been making ceramics for 29 years since university. I'd like to say that "the most important thing clay has taught me is patience," but I'm still eagerly and impatiently waiting for the kiln to open, even though I know what the outcome will be. Clay is such a material that it can resist and develop its own personality during shaping, drying, and firing. It can lose its form if you shape it too quickly, and it can crack or deform if you dry it too quickly. It always guides you to act according to its characteristics. At the same time, you have to master the material courageously and without fear, working systematically and with discipline. Sometimes, you have to be very gentle, like handling a newborn baby without hurting it. I believe that working with clay has given me the ability to think deeply, to look at life poetically, and to focus on details.

Almost all state university fine arts faculties have ceramics departments, but private universities don't. However, student interest in this department is quite substantial. What do you attribute this to?

The distinction between art, craft, and design may help us understand the situation you're highlighting. Today, art/design education is also characterized by an interdisciplinary approach involving art, design, and science. If private universities in Turkiye offer art education but prioritize design, this may be due to a preference for design. Crafts are a field that is regaining prominence globally. In countries with rich cultural histories, traditional production, alongside art and design, is prominent within the framework of contemporary craft approaches in terms of cultural policy.

 In major cities, especially Istanbul, we encounter a ceramics studio at every turn. Most are run by individuals with no academic training. Is this a sustainable situation?

The large number of ceramics departments and the increase in the number of graduates have increased public interest in ceramics. Amateurs who want to develop their hobbies can open studios within their means to create a practice area, but I don't think this is sustainable. Those who open studios in this way often close them down after a while. I believe it's more appropriate for those with academic training to run a studio, especially for product development, sales, and courses. This is because they receive comprehensive training in the field during their undergraduate studies.

How do you evaluate the relationship between the ceramics industry and art? Does the industry provide sufficient support to universities and the art scene?

I believe the industry needs to provide more support to universities and the art scene. Some companies in the industry do provide support, but I believe more support could be provided. In the field of art and design, young artists/designers could be given the opportunity to work in a factory environment, create their original designs, and showcase their work. Furthermore, as seen in examples abroad, international symposiums could be held to build museum collections and establish museums.

Ceramic art has existed alongside humanity for 8,000 years. What is your vision for its future?

From our daily lives to the sanitary ware sector, from space technology to advanced ceramics, I foresee it continuing to be a part of our lives in the field of art and design. I believe that handicraft, along with creativity, is one of the most fundamental ways for people to learn, know, and discover through doing. As many experts emphasize, I believe that the flexible thinking and solution-generating capacity that humans acquire and develop in art and design will continue to add value to every aspect of life. As in the past, ceramic art will continue to enrich our lives in the future.

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WHO IS BURCU OZTURK KARABEY?

She was born in Ankara in 1975. She graduated from the Ceramics Department of Hacettepe University's Faculty of Fine Arts in 1996. In 1997, she began working as a Research Assistant in the same department. She received her Master's degree in 1999 and her Art Proficiency in 2004. She was appointed associate professor in 2012.

She held her first solo exhibition in 2003. Her works have been exhibited in countries such as Kazakhstan, Lithuania, TRNC, India, the USA, China, Italy, Belgium, Egypt, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Spain, and Korea. Karabey, who has received five awards, two honorary mentions, one medal of honor, and one honorary diploma for her works, is featured in various collections both in Turkiye and abroad. Her work has been featured in publications such as "Ceramic Arts & Perception," "500 Raku," and "100 Tile and Ceramic Artists of Istanbul." Karabey began working at Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Bodrum Faculty of Fine Arts, in June 2012, where she served as Head of the Ceramics Department and Vice Dean, and currently serves as Dean at the same institution.