By Ayşe Acar
Toronto Spark
Before my December trip to Türkiye, my dear friend Paul Kyle—owner of Paul Kyle Gallery in Vancouver—called me with a suggestion.
“Ayşe,” he said, “Edward Burtynsky has an exhibition in Istanbul. You’ve seen his work at our gallery. Please visit the show for us—and if you’d like, I can try to arrange an interview.”
The idea of interviewing a Canadian artist in Istanbul, on the land where I was born and raised, was deeply exciting—especially an artist I’ve long admired, someone who has dedicated his life to documenting humanity’s impact on the natural world.
Read the full article here.
Read MoreBy Asude Dilan Yiğit
Borusan Contemporary Blog
ADY: Another aspect of your work is that there is never a definitive distinction between what is “good” or “bad,” that’s at least what I have observed through your own statements. You do not aim to showcase a solution that is “right,” but rather try to provide a space for the viewers to carve out their own perspective on the current state of the earth.
EB: Yeah, I've always done that. I’ve always placed my work within an aesthetic engagement with the subject, trying to find a moment where that subject becomes visually intriguing. That's what pulls you to the image. Furthermore, the pieces are revelatory, not accusatory. As humans, we're changing the ocean temperature and acidity of the ocean. We're changing the atmospheric CO2 components. We're changing the earth through terraforming, through agriculture, and through deforestation. And through building towns on wetlands, and all the other things that we do, we're changing natural habitat at a frightening speed. So, we are now the top predator, and the Erosion project reflects this understanding that we are the managers of our future and of what we are passing on to the next generation. These acts of reclamation are acts of hope. All of these are potentially there to see in the images that I create. The landscapes can tell these stories, and the work is bearing witness to that, and evidence that human activity can have a positive future effect.
Read the full interview here.
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