Sunday 26 May 2013

Art Scene 2.0 - a copper kiss

The area around Istanbul Modern is called Tophane. Close to water's edge it nonetheless looks landward. Small streets are starting to fill with uberhip coffee shops and galleries between the motorcycle repair shops and other hardware stores.

Sarkis, the artist whose work I had seen at SALT Beyoğlu in April has a solo exhibition in a very nice artspace in Tophane called Galeri Mana.
The space is industrial chic and beautifully done - airy, simple, with nice exposed brick and sittable window ledges. Since this exhibition filled both the ground and first floor, the crowd and drinks were out in the street.
I went back the next day to photograph the space and Sarkis was there giving an interview upstairs, as he was scheduled to give a student talk nearby that afternoon.
While I am not sure what this work is about (other than it is what it is) I very much like the cymbal on a slowly oscillating chain made of connected short copper springs. The cymbal's excursion is only about 20cm and as it approaches the copper clad puck (same diameter as cymbal) there is the tiniest 'chunk' - not enough vibration to sound the cymbal, but a tiny cupping of air trapped within the void of the cymbal's concavity affecting the sound of gentle impact - a kiss, in fact.
I'm always a sucker for oil spread. In this case, however, I also very much like the way the work on paper is presented. The backboard is birch ply, encased in a perspex lid. The paper is very simply pinned to the back board. A nice compromise between just pinning a work to a wall and strangling a work behind glass, cutting off all escape with mitred frame corners.
These look like Muji pins to me.

Shopping in Kadıköy 2.0

A return to Kadıköy by myself this time.
With a birthday party looming today I decide upon those jewel-like preserved vegetables
for Andrew who is 'too old for presents'. Naturally this means I must return to the shop with the fabulous almond paste sweets, Cafe Erol. Looks a bit like a Konditerai, inside and out.
Some of the almond paste sweets are rolled in crushed pistachios (rear right), but I am a purist (rear centre).
These particular jars of boiled sweet historically indicated that the Jannisary, the Sultan's crack troops, were pleased with their paypacks. Still called “akide şekeri” (lit. “good faith/allegiance candy”) the colours are splendid.
I then pop over to the organic spice shop to get a small bottle of sumac molasses, an extremely tart syrup similar to the more readily available pomegranate molasses, as a thank-you to Korhan. The items dangling from the shop awning are strings of sun-dried red peppers and, on the far right, thumb-sized patlaçan, or baby eggplants, cored and all ready for stuffing at Çiya.
The shop assistant is particularly nice.
Jars of various spices
tempt me to take 100 gr of both powdered sumac and red pepper flakes.
Returning to the ferry, I pass a stall offering these these prepared (honestly, pre-pared!?) artichoke hearts, as seen on this Yotam Ottolenghi  clip from his Channel 4 series on Istanbul and other Mediterranean cuisine. The clip shows how all the outer leaves and inner stickers are removed for you. A bag of 4 cost TL10, or about £3/$5.
And they are massive! I simply steamed them and ate them cold, sliced with a little lemon and mayo. Yum.
The return ferry travels past a massive structure, the Army Barracks, seen in the background at the horizon.
This is where Florence Nightingale came during the Crimean War and started the practice of modern nursing. There is a small museum devoted to her, apparently in one of these towers.
And it is right at the commercial part of the waterways, with cranes and container ships everywhere.
And this is one of the smaller vessels!
Composition in orange and blue.

Saturday 25 May 2013

A Turkish Cemetery and Brancusi

And again, on the way up to and from the Black Sea Castle, I found this terraced cemetery, a cool green oasis amongst the glare of the bare earth and the paved roads.
What surprises me is how the grave is still mounded after, in this case, almost 20 years.
Theses flat cut-out silhouettes
remind me of simplified versions of the Romanian grave markers I found in the decorative arts museum in Budapest,
 
which strongly suggest the inspiration for Brancusi's sculptures and bases.

Friday 24 May 2013

Wild flowers and roses on the way to the castle

Ascending and descending the hill I find these blooming perennials and shrubs. This creeping ground cover, generously covered with bee-attracting blossoms, looks to be a type of penstemmon, but blue?
A kind of yellow aster?
The largest leaved purple contoneaster I've ever seen.
Dogwood roses.
Fragrant broom.
A small euphorbia (lower left), with another yellow daisy-like compositae with the purpley-blue creeper.
Chamomile and scarlet poppy.
Another yellow but taller, with Queens Anne's Lace
Sweetly scented roses.

Thursday 23 May 2013

The Black Sea

is a curious body of water.
It holds an allure for Julie as one of her all-time favourite restaurants serves dishes from the Black Sea and she loves the Wednesday market of Black Sea traders in garden produce.

It also is the end of a line of two distinct water flows: fresh water from rivers in eastern Europe, Central Asia and Turkey; salt water from the Mediterranean via the Turkish Straits, composed of the Dardanelles between the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosphorus, between the Sea of Marmar and the Black Sea.
All very complicated, with layering of waters based on temperature, salinity and surface/coastal conditions. But I imagine this complication is what gives this region its richness and diversity of agriculture and fisheries.

I finally succumbed to the lure of the Bosphorus cruise (a whopping TL25/£9/$12) for a full day out. Departing at 10.30, 90 minutes ping-ponging across the waterway to various ferry docks, arriving at Anadolu Kavaği, the last ferry stop on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. The day starts overcast yet humid, and en route the rain periodically spits down, dimpling the water's surface.

On board and awaiting departure I spot a continuous stream of small jellyfish:
The first stop is Barbaros Hayretin Paşa Iskelesi. All of the ferry quays are built or renovated in the Ottoman style.
The Dolmabahaçe Palace is the first point of interest on the European side.
Next comes a series of antique-style buildings, both private homes and ancient monuments:
One of a pair of fortifications at a narrow point where the initial conquest of Constantinople by the attacking Ottomans commenced by controlling trade up and down the Bosphorus (I think).
An older appearing structure behind a sleekly modern watercraft, and a pair of minarets behind in the trees.
Note the lack of tidal effect as there is little or no allowance for rising waters along these housefronts.
Finally, in the distance, my first glimpse of the Black Sea.
As we approach the final quay, a hill appears with a castle on top. It seems the castle, Yoros Kalesi, was a strategic point originally settled by the Phoenicians, then the Greeks, Byzantines, Genoese and finally the Ottomans, bouncing between the Ottomans and the Genoese for 150 yrs from c 1300-1450.
This is the point of the trip - to view the Black Sea from this vantage point.
I heard every language on this height: German, Norwegian, Japanese, Hindi, American, Spanish, Russian.
 
And a bit of the ruins:
Someone kindly took my picture.
On the way up I'd noted a cafe serving calmari, so I headed there after descending.
Followed by ice cream! Delicious looking star-shaped waffle galettes
made in a hot press.
But I chose two scoops in a cup -  one with chunks of chestnut and the with whole almonds, both in vanilla ice cream.
On the return trip, the sudden appearance of built-up cosmopolitan areas is striking - one spit of land projecting into the Bosphorus is completely wooded and the next is completely paved over, covered with buildings. It is barely discernible in the distance but telephoto shows a different story:
The ship's spray created this rainbow. A strong wind sprang up and the seagulls flying alongside us just about kept pace.
The Turkish economy is booming right now due to construction - hence this new build in the old style.
Yes, all the sunny images are from the return trip in the afternoon, facing Asia. The overcast images are all from the outbound trip facing the European side.