"Öteki" Kavramı Üzerine Görsel Çözümlemeler

Abstract

ÖZESKİCİ, Evrim. Visual Analysis on the Notion of "the Other”, Doctor of Fine Arts in Thesis, Ankara, 2017. As a notion, the other signifies another. In a visual analysis, this notion changes according to the societal structure and the period. The other is everyone. As "I” will be "the other” to another, the relationship between I and the other can be referred to countless times. "I” can also sense, feel and decide on all beings. Therefore, the self is subjective and identifies the person themselves. From the Renaissance to the modern-day many artists have incorporated the other, the self, identity, marginalisation and gender in their works. The depiction of divine individuals in the works of the other carry religious meaning in the renaissance and baroque era. The events that have the most influence on the change of the other in the modernist process is the French Revolution, World War I and II. Instead of heroes, sublimation, splendour and religion; the oppressed, those siding with the people, freedom and struggles were addressed in romanticism. In realism, navvies, labourers, village sceneries and society’s oppressed are noticeable. What Romanticists and Realists have in common is that rather than glorification, they feed off society. Another phenomenon in the modernist process is that it reflects on developments regarding opposition, struggles, death, pain, tragedy and war. When the artistic tendency of the era is examined, a political, expressionist, antagonistic and critical approach can be referred to. It seems that where wars, tragedies, problems and societal incidents occur, the "other” can emerge at any moment. The occurrences of coups, massacres and societal events after the 1960 and 1980’s in Turkey led to artists producing works on the other, memory, power, identity, and marginalisation. The contents of the thesis have followed a process regarding history of art and personal applications of the other. The theme of the pictures in personal applications are identity, form, and the relationship between the other and the self. The characters in the pictures have been deformed on purpose. As the identity of the role the characters play undergoes change, this concerns the entire society. The criticism here is aimed at the ones excluded from the society and the people who are marginalised. The inclusion of the history of art aspect in the thesis clarifies why artists emphasise the concept of the other, how the form is marginalised in contemporary art, and what kind of relationship it has with which concepts.