The opening of the personal exhibition titled the “Woman’s Hand” of the artist Aysegul Turedi Ozen and the Eskisehir Odunpazari City’s Fire Ceramic Gallery, were made together. Opening her 26th personal exhibition in this beautiful city of which license number is also 26, here’s Prof. Ozen’s thoughts about her exhibition…
Prof. Aysegul TUREDI OZEN
Eskisehir… I wasn’t born in this city but I grew up in here. It’s the city where I have come in 1986, begun my academicianship as a research associate in Anadolu University Fine Arts High School Ceramic Department and become a professor… My study environment, my teachers each more valuable than other, my study fellows in this city, have added great values to my life which matters a lot for me. I have opened 25 personal exhibitions throughout my 41-year artistic life which began in Istanbul and continued in Eskisehir. I always wanted to open my 26th personal exhibition which corresponds to my retirement span, in Eskisehir of which the license number is also 26 and wanted it to be unique to Eskisehir; even the name of it was ready in my works… At this very time; I was offered by the Odunpazari Mayorship to open a personal exhibition in the Odunpazari City’s Fire Ceramic Gallery’s private exhibition hall which was also going to be opened at the same time. This offer made me more than happy and I accepted it immediately.
I named my 26th personal exhibition the “Woman’s Hand”. It’s my special field of interest to make studies and researches on pottery since the years I was a student. Since the year I came to Eskisehir 1986 to the year of 2022, meaning that for 36 years, I’m continuously doing many researches and studies on pots and pottery in the Sorkun neighborhood of Eskisehir’s district of Mihaliccik. I’m contributing to its’ promotion with the presentations I made and articles I wrote on Sorkun pottery at home and abroad. My ambition to Sorkun pots constituted the concept of my exhibition.
In brief, I took the pottery forms created by the hands of our Sorkunian potter women who shape the earth for the sake of artisanship and brought them together and integrated them in my own art works. What I wish from the works in this exhibition is to rise out separately from the hands of the ‘Artisan Woman’ and the ‘Artists Woman’, become one in a sole meaning and make the audience to experience a questioning process from traditional to universal.
On the 29th of July 2022, we celebrated both the rise of the Eskisehir Odunpazari City’s Fire Ceramic Gallery and the opening of my 26th personal exhibition together.
