The Universe Has Suddenly Turned into Water*

*“You no longer stand on firm ground - the universe has suddenly turned into water” (Alan Watts)

Hilal Can came across this saying, while listening to a song sampling a speech by the philosopher Alan Watts. What may seem like a frightening state of uncertainty can also be a liberating realization of our constant transformation. Expressing a state of fluidity, lightness and blurred boundaries the transdisciplinary artist Hilal Can connects this imagination of flow to her own artistic journey of self repair.

Hilal Cans own universe suddenly became water, or as she states: “Some transformations seem to happen all at once. Perhaps something that has been moving within us for a long time finally finds a way to become visible.”

Through her artistic practice, which evolves from paintings characterized by a strong surreal and magical symbolic visual language, the artist creates her own mythological cosmos, referencing multiple narratives and crossing boundaries between disciplines and materials. By transforming mythological figures and creating her own characters and symbols, she builds her own ecosystem, bringing together individual experience, collective memory and queer forms of existence across time. A universe embodying alternative and intuitive forms of knowledge.

The element of water – healing, cleansing, yet also mysteriously deep, is a recurring motif in her work. Following the installation “Between two roots: A place for those who look within” at this year's Mardin Biennale, where Hilal Can created immersive installations reflecting on the dualism of fire and water, she now deepens her exploration of water. The exhibition brings together several paintings and drawings from different periods of her artistic career, which revolve around this motif. The works are embedded in a site specific installation, which Hilal Can develops during her residency in Cologne, creating a space where slippery ground becomes a state of flow and coming home.

„From resistance to letting go, from heaviness to lightness. Perhaps transformation is not about becoming something more, but about releasing some of the weight we carry.
Perhaps the universe has not suddenly turned into water. Perhaps, for a brief moment, we have arrived at a place from which we can perceive its flow.“ (Hilal Can)

Invited by NEOLA art projects for a short term residency in Cologne, Hilal Can creates her own watery universe at Gold+Beton. Curated by Eva Liedtjens with curatorial assistance by Eda Kıvanҫ. Supported by the Kulturamt der Stadt Köln and NEOLA art projects e.V.