“Carrying memories on a broken tide” – an exhibition by Sumer Erek

A review by Onur Uz

There I was, on a partially sunny Wednesday in London, heading to an exciting new exhibition by the distinguished artist Sumer Erek. He welcomed me in a lovely flat in Dalston, whilst I was bursting with excitement to see his recent work.

The name “Broken Tide” got my attention first. I spared a couple of minutes to dig into that feeling and metaphor, until I fully realised the plain message of the exhibition. (Erek says that people are free to come up with personalised messages, so this is my very personal comprehension). The message, to me, was the sea as a carrier of wanderers, refugees, seekers and everyone who are on a trail or search of something.

Sümer Erek

Erek uses a style where simplicity meets chaos. And out of the ashes of that chaos, appears agony. Agony of those who have never been able to speak out, nor have had a chance to step outside the broken tide and feel the solid ground. Erek’s pieces have dynamics, they are always on the move and once you are in the atmosphere, you realise the tides get stronger, and you are not strong enough to have control over them. I ask myself, in that room where he exhibits a painting and a blanket which depicts a wave, where do I belong in that picture? Am I safe where I am, or are we all bound to give into the waves and see where we end up?

Checking the pieces, Erek first takes me to a room upstairs, where he exhibits a somewhat counterguarded bed. In its actual exhibited style, a body stands beneath the bed, however keeping the duvet on himself so it can shelter him/her. This “upside down” World reminds me, how many times refugees actually need a safe shelter, even if it is the water itself sometimes. Erek then takes me into a room where he exhibits three of his pieces as light boxes which gives an ultimate “intimacy” to the pictures. In that room of pictures, the first impression I get is “flames beneath my feet”. And only then do I realise, how hard it must have been to burn whilst being on the sea. Erek’s expressive rhetoric in his paintings are unique, dashy and interrogator.

Erek constantly ask questions and leave the pieces of those answers as scattered around on his artworks. It is often the viewer’s perspective and will to find answers that spot all the answers they should be seeking. When I ask about the three pictures to Erek, he says “I asked them to come up with words regarding the term home, (what have they left behind) and where they are now”. In the pictures, you can plainly see Turkish words sketched on the pictures, by the teenager themselves. The timid yet stiff standing of the children there, is worth seeing. I notice something that the term “family” and “friends” is the most repeated word, when “love” follows those two. And I ask myself, is home actually where we can have those three at the same time? Are we bound to swim on broken tides until we get those three?

The exhibition is on 78A Mildmay Rd N1 4NG between 30 June – 2 July 2016
on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 16:00- 21:00 – other times by appointment.