04 Dec - 10 Jan 2015
Some have described Halil as a radical, both in his life and in his art, a playful trickster, never forceful yet always insistent, pushing both himself and his subjects out of their relative comfort zones. He is intrigued by the depth of the soul and what connotes the public and the private. A reckoning with his past has resulted in his work having no borders, no secrets, where everything is laid bare before you, investigating matters that are social, political, cultural and sexual.
In this his second solo exhibition at The Empire Project - 'I am playing ping-pong now' - we are faced with possibly his most personal series of works to date. The works in show is a selection from his most recent book published under the same name. The exhibition opens on the 4th of December.
Goma Magazine has this to say about the book: 'In a time when publishers and photographers are trying really hard to add all those sophistications to their books it's reassuring to browse and touch Halil latest book. This book doesn't have any funny binding, nor it has luxurious material or special packaging, for the simple reason that it doesn't need it. A bold, stunning and explicit work. A perfect 10' In addition to this his other published books are : 'T.S.' (2003) and 'The Smell of Thinner' (1998). His book 'A Cloud of Black Smoke' which documents Turkey's turbulent political past covering the period between 1968-1972, is listed in The Photobook: A History Volume III by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger "Documents of Anger and Sadness" (Protest books).
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