Floral / Antre, 2024. Acrylic on canvas, 200 x 300 cm
İnci Furni’s solo exhibition at Ferda Art Platform offers viewers an opportunity to reimagine the dual meanings of the word circle in Turkish, where it also refers to a flat or apartment. Art critic and curator Duygu Demir captures the essence of the show in her introductory text, noting how it “pays homage to the two central motifs in Furni’s practice: site-specificity and play.”
These ideas take tangible form as Furni redefines the gallery space, shifting attention from the usual white cube walls to unconventional surfaces like the floor and ceiling, encouraging a playful and dynamic interaction.
The show opens in a room with a circular wooden form on the floor, adorned with cut-outs of vibrant, drifting geometric symbols displayed under glass. Furni uses these cut-outs as templates, spraying car paint through them to shape her paintings. The piece draws attention downward, inviting viewers to engage with the space in unexpected ways. The other three rooms feature ceiling-mounted canvases, each filled with reimagined animal silhouettes delicately infused with feminine motifs and illuminated from below. This work transforms the ceiling into an unconventional focal point, disrupting spatial norms.
The exhibition finds a fitting home in the historic Ralli Apartment in Istanbul’s Nişantaşı district, a building rich in cultural significance. Built in the early 1900s, the apartment has hosted many of Istanbul’s prominent figures, providing a unique historical backdrop for Furni’s site-specific works. This context lends added depth to the ceiling installation, which subtly evokes the legacy of Fahrelnissa Zeid, a pioneering abstract artist and one of Turkey’s first female painters to gain international recognition. Zeid once lived on the upper floor of this very building and held a solo exhibition there in 1945, adding an evocative layer of historical connection to the space.
Furni’s Flat/Circle is more than an exhibition; it is an exploration of space, cultural history, and artistic playfulness.
See the exhibition catalogue here.
Alexandra de Cramer
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
