Fairy “Tail” , 2009

Disquiet shadows
that bring mankind into the light

By Virginie Ballet
(www.digitalbridges.eu)

Ali Cabbar’s shadows are far from being still or dark. « Disquiet shadows », the Istanbul exhibition of the Turkish artist presents us with meaningful shadows,which seem like the embodiment of  the mind’s complexity.

Organised in the Yapi Kredi Art gallery since the 7th of April, Disquiet shadows has been designed to represent the multiple dimensions of the individual.

Sometimes tortured, sometimes day dreaming, individuals are envisaged as symbols of the cruelty and injustice of life.

These trials result in different reactions, which Ali Cabbar has tried to depict in his series entitled « face cards ». This playful series of drawings represent one man in the different phases he goes through. Fear, joy or anger are conveyed, always without any didactic purpose. The artist, trained in Marmara’s fine arts faculty, does not give any life lesson, and only uses black humour to underline life’s harshness, and its consequences : escape, schizophrenia or shame. Every feeling is transformed into a face expression or a situation.

What is most striking about Ali Cabbar’s work is self-deprecation, suggesting that every one has a dark part in them, those « disquiet shadows » that manipulate the characters Ali Cabbar draws, without them noticing it.