transgross
publication project, 2020-ongoing
CURRENTLY
ON SHOW
AT MAMA ROTTERDAM
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“I consider transgross itself as an organic being, composed of images of organic beings.
As all living beings, it can not stay stable: it changes, develops, and adapts itself to the world it found itself in, with no purpose other than to reproduce itself.”
transgross is a publication project that has started out as a single photobook, during the first year of Altınöz’s studies at Piet Zwart Institute.
The book consists of images of Altınöz’s personal photographic archive of life and death which he had encountered throughout his everyday life in the past years.
The collection of images at times evoke an uneasiness, and often plain, core disgust; yet they also captivate the viewer and create a paradoxical situation of a simultaneous attraction and repulsion.
transgross is an unorthodox visual diary of life and death through everyday life. As all living beings, it can not stay stable: it changes, develops, and adapts itself to the world. In order to spread more easily, as we speak, it is mutating into prints, postcards, stickers, zines, t-shirts.
The book consists of images of Altınöz’s personal photographic archive of life and death which he had encountered throughout his everyday life in the past years.
The collection of images at times evoke an uneasiness, and often plain, core disgust; yet they also captivate the viewer and create a paradoxical situation of a simultaneous attraction and repulsion.
transgross is an unorthodox visual diary of life and death through everyday life. As all living beings, it can not stay stable: it changes, develops, and adapts itself to the world. In order to spread more easily, as we speak, it is mutating into prints, postcards, stickers, zines, t-shirts.
“It originates from a totally self driven and intuitive place, as a result of an inclination I have towards photographing subjects that evoke an abject feeling in me, such as insects, animal corpses, signifiers of organic decay. They are documentations of life’s residues, those which I come across during my everyday life...as the name suggests, is open to being interpreted as a transgressive act, that transcends what is considered plainly as “gross” and promotes an aesthetic pleasure that can arise from the “gross”, and aims to provoke the viewer in this manner.”
The conception of transgross happened in the first year of my studies in Piet Zwart Institute, after a thematic seminar with Frits Gierstberg on the history of photo-books, I decided that this was the perfect time to give life to the dormant images in my hard drive. These photographs, similar to what they portrayed, were lifeless and alive at the same time.
I considered the images in transgross to be parts of myself, as they were mostly what I came across during my experiences of everyday life. These photographs were traces of my experiences, hidden in an external memory...photographs of things that I encountered in my daily life that disgusted and fascinated me; it was time for them to snoop into the world: I ended their lifeless existence, through creating transgross.”
From ‘body wants to live but’
Altınöz’s graduation thesis for
Master of Arts in Fine Art & Design: Lens-Based Media
The conception of transgross happened in the first year of my studies in Piet Zwart Institute, after a thematic seminar with Frits Gierstberg on the history of photo-books, I decided that this was the perfect time to give life to the dormant images in my hard drive. These photographs, similar to what they portrayed, were lifeless and alive at the same time.
I considered the images in transgross to be parts of myself, as they were mostly what I came across during my experiences of everyday life. These photographs were traces of my experiences, hidden in an external memory...photographs of things that I encountered in my daily life that disgusted and fascinated me; it was time for them to snoop into the world: I ended their lifeless existence, through creating transgross.”
From ‘body wants to live but’
Altınöz’s graduation thesis for
Master of Arts in Fine Art & Design: Lens-Based Media
︎
( Would you like
to become a part of
a collective publication?
Jump in here. )
︎
