Vikaye (1) Painting

Berna Dolmacı was born in Akşehir in 1994. The artist completed her undergraduate education in the painting department of Dokuz Eylül University’s Fine Arts Faculty (DEU-GSF), and she now pursues her master’s degree in the same field at the same university’s Fine Arts Institute (DEU-GSE). Sketchbook practice is at the heart of the works of the artist, who lives and produces in İzmir. Her approach to the sketchbook can be understood in the context of “visual diaries,” which documents the image of the moment she faces in both literary and visual ways. At the same time, she aims to document the objects that belong to “that moment” in wherever she is, like a leaf, sweet wrapper, sales slip, flower, a string of hair and paper. Her visual diary, which saves records of the moments,has gradually evolved into abstractions of unspoilt nature where she wants to go to, making use of the technique of collage. Starting with 2017, she has gone out of the notebook, and started creating large collages with waste paper, which she coloured with non-industrial organic materials. However, starting with 2018, her collages’ connections with the venues have gradually intensified and strengthened, and manifested themselves in process-oriented public realms as large installations and venue coatings. Since 2019, she has been creating ecological-based art while since 2020, she has been using the areas she chooses for her art as ateliers, where she has also spent the nights in specific periods, to create her works. Dolmacı uses the main material of her works, the soil and the plants in the area where she is, including the vegetable and fruit she consumes and which come from that soil; cutting and drying the skin and seeds of those vegetables and fruit. As the work takes the shape that can be exhibited, the area it is in is taken into consideration and it takes its final form. Therefore, the new biotic process of the work begins.