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InspirationArt & Culture

Club Dystopia: Yeşim Akdeniz imagines a fictitious dark, dystopian world

Club Dystopia is a fictitious place imagined by the artist, Yeşim Akdeniz. It's populated by re-creations of now demolished buildings – typical of the early Republic of Turkey, buildings whose architecture reflected the idealism of the newly founded nation state.

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Interior room with pale blue walls, pink curtains, two wooden tables with potted plants, and abstract artwork on a red panel above

In these paintings, we can see a desire to affect human life and pass on ideology through architecture. The pale colour palette and disparate objects convey a sense of unease in the onlooker.

Akdeniz was inspired by the Object Oriented Ontology, as well as the Anthropocene, which refers to an era the world is believed to have entered characterised by global geological and ecological changes created of human activities. Based on these ideas, Akdeniz points out how nature is reshaped and transformed by the human hand.

The artist has previously exhibited at MAK Museum (Vienna, 2013), Guggenheim Gallery (Los Angeles, 2013) and Stedeljik Museum (Amsterdam, 2004).

Club Dystopia will be exhibited at Pi Artworks Istanbul between 13 May and 25 June 2016. Find out more information at piartworks.com.

Via direct submission | All images courtesy of Pi Artworks

Sparse interior space with a beige lounge chair, grey egg-shaped object, black shoes on the floor, and abstract artwork hung on the pale blue wall above
Person wearing light blue jeans and brown boots standing beside a miniature architectural model on a blue floor against cream curtains
Green velvet sofa with ornate wooden frame and a white cat beside it in an art gallery setting with a colourful abstract painting on the wall above
Modernist building with tall tower and dark flag standing in misty water under overcast sky, from Yeşim Akdeniz's Club Dystopia series
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