Stillness in contemporary art: freezing the moment in sculpture and painting

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1301474 (Table of Contents)

Contemporary society's experience of time is characterized by high velocity of everyday rhythms dominating both public and private realms. In this continually accelerating speed of everyday life, time does not belong to the individual but to a system where the individual is expected to upload himself/herself quickly with constantly changing information and direction coming from both the actual and virtual realms and is left in desperation under these circumstances which forces him/her constantly to catch up with the next and focus on the future rather than the present. It is argued in this study that stillness in contemporary art today responds to a need in contemporary society to gain control over time and experience an authentic present in an environment where time slips away from the hand of the individual and looses its diachronic order. Therefore, while on a theoretical level the current study attempts to establish a link between the contemporary society's experience of time and its need for stillness, it makes such a link visible by analyzing the practices in painting and sculpture where stillness is provided by freezing the moment. These practices which can be seen as the reflection of the need for stillness in contemporary society are grouped into two in this study according to their changing method and aim. While the works in the first group freeze the speed and action and therefore make the imperceptible visible, the works in the second group represents a privileged instant in memory and carries it to the present. In this context, Serkan Özkaya's Sudden Gust of Wind, which depicts A4 paper flitting in the air, will be analyzed as an example applying the first method in sculpture. Leyla Gediz's works motivated by a search for the Perfect Moment, on the other hand, will be examined as examples for the second method, which allows for the individual to establish an immediate subjective relation with the moment and the present.