I Could Be Wolverine...

''Together with the Irin exhibition, I made pictures of the tie-wearers on television, who are as respectable as the sewage pipes running under the asphalt, and I compiled each portrait from the notebooks I have drawn in recent years.''

Seçil Alkış: If we were to sit here a year from now and celebrate what an amazing year it was in terms of what you did during this period, what would you have accomplished during this period?

Halil Vurucuoğlu: I have many new stories that I plan to realize for the upcoming period. Although the material I use (paper) is delicate, it can offer many alternatives, I like to experiment and find new areas of use. First of all, I assume that I have completed the paintings that I planned to work on for my project exhibition that I have been postponing for a while. We are celebrating the opening of my project exhibition, which will include three paintings and an installation, with a live music performance. In addition to the project exhibition that I want to realize, I aim to prepare a personal exhibition for New York, which I think is the most important art center in the world. The work has started and is going well, if an agreement is made as I want, the preparations for the exhibition for 2015 will continue rapidly. My exhibition plans have gone well and I have also started to shoot video clips for the bands I like, I have shot the first video clip of the Feds, which consists of four beautiful people, we are all watching it together.

SA: I'm sure there are many beautiful things in your life, when did you experience the greatest satisfaction among them?

HV: There have been many times when I have been very pleased, I don't know which moment was the biggest. Life would be better if there were no expectations, but unfortunately there are, if you are aware of your expectations and are ready to be satisfied, you will be satisfied, on the other hand, I have been as dissatisfied as I have been satisfied.

SA: Are there things you don't like to do?

HV: Arguing, having to argue with someone. Speaking the same language but not being able to understand each other, moments when you lose your composure are not acceptable situations for me. Also, postponing things, postponing things, places, people or things to be done.

SA: We know that you have had solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions. Can you tell us about the project or achievement that is most important to you?

HV: While I accept that fairs, exhibitions and auctions abroad have been very helpful to my career, I would like to talk about my project exhibition Oxygen Crash that I held at the Elgiz Museum in 2010, it is a special exhibition for me. I had prepared the drafts 4 years ago, and time had intervened because I was waiting for the right place and the right time. In this exhibition, where I focused on the adaptation problem of contemporary people stuck in the city/nature dilemma, the light and sound installation is presented with a special order that includes the viewer, and the works spread over 3 rooms are perceived as a single work consisting of painting, light and sound. Since I wanted to emphasize the fact that the contemporary urban dweller cannot live in full harmony with either the city or nature, and the dizziness and chaos he finds himself in, I wanted to express the exhibition with the metaphor of "Oxygen Crash". It was nice to see the project that had been waiting for years finally come true.

SA: You keep a comic diary regularly and many of your works are inspired by these comic diaries and sometimes you even benefit from them directly. How do you define your comic diaries?

HV: When I’m not painting, I have notebooks and visual diaries that I draw during the day to calm my mind, it’s true. When I was drawing my diaries, I wanted to show the inside of what was breathless, sickening, and blinding. Of course, a piece of shit news that I hear or read in a country where the agenda changes instantly also contributes to this process. Social pollution, power fetishism, and mass perception games were issues that had been on my mind for a long time. With the İrin exhibition, I made pictures of the tie-wearers on TV, who are as respectable as the sewage pipes passing under the asphalt, and I compiled each portrait from the notebooks I’ve drawn in recent years.

SA: Do you have any concerns about your paintings evoking political sentiments?

HV: I don't really understand the issue of making or not making political paintings. In essence, paintings are limited by definitions, in a sense, there is a good or bad painting. There are experiences, feelings and reactions. A person is already political with what they do or don't do.

SA: Can you tell us about a recent project or problem that you solved better, faster, smarter or more efficiently?

HV: When I apply a wall painting with a stencil to an outdoor area (anywhere outside my studio), I try to be more practical. I determine solutions that will minimize problems related to time and space in my studio and apply them on the street. For example, last month, when I applied a work to my close friend Hair Mafia's window, I needed eight stencils for eight different colors, but with a practical move, I solved the job with three stencils. Thus, it was a work that was completed in a short time and with pleasure for both myself and the other party. It was a different and beautiful experience in terms of preparation and application.

SA: I know that you have your own special world, hidden and secret. Superheroes are also very special to you, do you think you have any superpowers?

HV: Sometimes I think it wouldn’t be bad if I were Wolverine. Until I was 4 years old, I thought everyone in the world, including myself, was a superhero, I was surprised when I learned that we didn’t have any superpowers. After I realized that life was different from comics and grew up a little, I started drawing pictures of heroes, later on I liked anti-heroes more than heroes. Maybe this could be a superpower in today’s conditions, I usually find what I’m looking for easily, it could be making something different from something, transforming it, and…

SA: Could you summarize your story for someone who has never met you?

HV: My story, like all old stories, is a battle between good and evil. Although I experience crazy excitement and extreme leaps from time to time, I am after a calm happiness and peace. Sometimes I feel like I am a good movie soundtrack, it is interesting. There are always vibrations, but I still try to stay close to my inner balance.

SA: The most disturbing thing about the art world is...

HV: It’s good that you said art world because I don’t like the word market, the art market sounds bad. The art world doesn’t have a serious union that is truly inclusive, supportive, and trustworthy, and I think this is a very important deficiency. If you ask about the deficiency and the thing that bothers me is that there are moments when we forget that what we do is art, and even if it has a financial value, I think it’s against the nature of the work to be remembered by numbers rather than the artistic pleasure it gives. As Eileen Gray said, the value of a work of art is directly proportional to the amount of love given to it.

SA: Are you one of those artists who likes to snack while working?

HV: Yes; nuts, pretzels, carrots, brownies and croissants are essential items in my workshop.

SA: Is there anything you would like to ask our readers?

HV: When was the last time you just looked up and looked up at the sky?