People XIV. From The Dis(This) appearance series, 2024

Arslan Sükan  

Dis(This) appearance Series Memory and transformation converge in the latest work of Turkish artist Arslan Sükan. The artist rescued archival photographs from the 19th century (1890-1920), distorted by chemical decomposition, and now available again thanks to preservation and his digital intervision through his  exquisite gaze.. The past has been rediscovered, allowing fragments of it to resonate in the present. Sükan's recovery of these photographs results in a visual resurrection that perpetuates fleeting memories of the past, challenging the fragility of collective memory. The impermanence of life is represented through the tension between deterioration and restoration in these images.

Sükan's work ensures that these forgotten photographs do not disappear into oblivion, but remain alive, preserving public memory and welcoming a shared journey through time. New narratives are forged when past and present merge, with the presence and absence of decay and rebirth coexisting in a delicate balance.

Through his images, the artist ensures that historical moments do not fade into obscurity, but rather endure through a shared experience with the viewer. These photographs become a medium for past lives and stories to intersect with our present consciousness, leading us to reflect on the permanence of memory and its role in shaping our identities.

Arslan Sukan is a multi-faceted artist who is trained in interior architecture and photography and has tackled with ideas that question the limitations of human perception, the borders between the physical and the virtual as well as the visible and the invisible. Sukan's work positions the artist as a challenging narrator who re-creates an idea or a form that confirm viewer expectations at first glance while undercutting them in practice.

From The Dis(This) appearance series Archival photographic paper (200gm) semi matt Edition of 3 + 1 AP Unframed