Our earliest transport, the craft to which all island dwellers owe our existence, the vessel with which we explored, expanded, and exerted our agency upon the surface of our blue planet. An enduring metaphor of transformation and hope hardwired to the evolutionary instinct for adaptation. What manner of atrophied soul would ever yearn to stop the boats?
Esra Kizir Gokcen’s Sali to Hope offers empathy and measured abstraction as a response to the migratory controversies of our times. (Pencil in February 1st and 8th for the chance to experience it with live music performance.)
Extract from press materials:
With Sail to Hope Esra Kizir Gokcen presents her response to the far-reaching effects of globalisation. Born from human empathy rather than politically driven, her work questions the hierarchies that place humans above other life forms.
In paintings inspired by Eastern miniature art, natural forces intermingle with crowds of abstracted shapes and figures to represent movements of people and cultures, between past and present. Collaged paper boats folded from world maps symbolise the shared humanity of precarious passages too often reduced to numbers in news headlines.
The ubiquitous origami vessels also feature in a largescale multi-media installation at the heart of the exhibition. These were co-created in workshops with diverse community groups. Participants christened each boat with a personal message of hope – inspiring the exhibition title. A soundscape by Grammy winning jazz saxophonist Tim Garland complements this collaborative work.
The artists have been working together since 2023, when Garland commissioned Gokcen to create paintings for his orchestral work. Visuals for the current Moment of Departure tour constitute part of this exhibition, and Tim Garland will play a selection from his current CD in a couple of intimate concerts on both Saturdays.
The afternoon performances will be followed by a Q&A with both artists who share the belief that art can communicate positive messages and elevate the resilience of the human spirit. A selection of prints and posters are available in support of War Child.
26 February – 9 March 2025
54 The Gallery,
Shepherd Market, Mayfair,
London W1J 7QX
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
