/Vertigo /Vertigo (Turkish)
Vertigo is a well-known Latin term for a loss of the sense of motion. This moment of separation of mind and body is presented in the paintings of Huri Kiriş as metaphor for a new existence.
The new series of paintings that the artist has titled “Vertigo”, takes on the topic of athletes performing in various sports. Far more than mere portraits of athletes, what Kiriş has created is a monument to the defiance of humanity.
Each athlete (Christina Theiss, İlham Tanui Özbilen, Oscar Pistorius, Felix Baumgartner and others) uses his or her branch of sports as a tool in an existential struggle. What they have in common is not that they participate in sports, but the effort they expend when surpassing limits. The forward-reaching boldness they display in their bodies and their social identities turns into an anonymous state of success, with a cost to humanity. Activity is instrumentalized. It is thus a motion that is ironic and falls short of its goal, becoming meaningless, and this makes it a moment of vertigo.
Başak Bugay