Artist Spotlight: Kaan Tarhan

Nov 13

Nov 13 Artist Spotlight: Kaan Tarhan

Hi, I’m Kaan. I’m a second year chemistry major and visual arts minor. I like to do a lot of arts and related things on campus, such as the Game Design RSO. I have these wild, dynamic sculpture ideas I’m currently pursuing - I’m really interested in interdisciplinary art and science integration. Over the summer, I scammed the school into paying me to write a book. It’s about reversibly color changing paints and pigments, which can change colors with light, heat, or water. It’s fascinating.

When did you first begin creating art?

I think I’ve been doing art ever since I’ve known myself. It was always my thing. I started very young, making games for my friends to play with. It transitioned into more fine art and painting in high school, but I’ve always been interested in creating.

What forms and subjects do you focus on in your art?

I would consider myself a painter, although there is a lot of debate in art theory about whether painting is dead and what qualifies as painting. I really like playing around with colors. I do a lot of classical watercolors, a lot of people, a lot of architecture and cityscapes. Apart from watercolor, I really like urban sketching. When I travel, I always have a sketchbook with me. I sketch people on the streets and talk with them. I love both studio painting and sitting down on a busy street and sketching there.

Where do you find inspiration for your art?

It comes from within. I see art as a tool, a mode of thinking. I’ve been actively thinking about why one produces art. Is it for money? Is it for fame? It’s none of those. It’s primarily for yourself, then for other people. Art for me is really closely tied to making sense of the world, to mental health.

What is your relationship to art?

I’m always thinking about the subject-painter relationship and what that means. I think that painting portraits is not a singular affair. People think of it as unidirectional - you create something to relay a feeling. I’m finding it to be more bidirectional. There’s a lot that you learn from the subject and they get from you. It’s a relationship. If you paint on your own, it’s contemplative. If you do it with someone else, there’s a lot of give and take.

What are some art projects you’ve been working on?

I started this series last year. I call it “Chat and Sketch.” I sit down to sketch someone, and we have a conversation for an hour or two hours. I stopped doing it outside, in the subway or in the airport. I started doing it in the bedroom, which is a lot more intimate. It’s definitely a different state of consciousness. While I sketch, I spend 90 percent of my capacity thinking about the sketch itself. I have less mental energy to deceive myself or to build barriers. It’s the only time where I’m fully honest with myself, because you can’t have coffee with a friend and be fully honest with yourself. Everyone has a very strong mind, and it twists reality. We create our own subconscious experiences. When I sketch, I’m able to respond and speak on a more surface level, which allows me to learn so much about myself and about other people. It’s like a trance. It’s an interesting experience, and I’ve been thinking about it less as a sketch and more as a performance art piece with two people and no audience. It’s very intimate, them and me.

“Chat and Sketch 01.09.19” by Kaan Tarhan

“When I sketch, I’m able to respond and speak on a more surface level, which allows me to learn so much about myself and about other people. It’s like a trance.”

I use Tinder to find people. Instead of looking for dates, I put in my bio that I’m looking for people to sketch. Every single time that I’ve met with someone, it’s been a really nice experience. It’s complete strangers, but the process of art creates venues for conversation. It’s a beautiful connection. So many random strangers have become good acquaintances or even friends after a few hours of sketching. Some of them I still keep in touch with after months. Looking at it from a more formal art analysis perspective, I’ve really been thinking about text and image together, because sketching people is nothing new. People have been doing that for thousands of years. If I wanted to sketch people, I could go to figure sketching. What I’m trying to get at is less a sketch but more of a documentation of the conversation that has happened, the performance. I inscribe something that I cannot forget from that conversation, that haunts me for days, and I find somewhere in the sketch to put that text. I’ve been thinking about how the text interacts with the subject. This exploration teaches me a lot about art but also a lot about life and how I relate to people. I am so glad that art is allowing me to meet and talk to different people who are coming from all sorts of backgrounds, establishing a connection and learning. Everyone has so much to give.

Image of the artist is courtesy of Festival of the Arts (FOTA). All artwork is courtesy of Kaan Tarhan.