Melike Dedeoglu

oil on canvas, 45x60 cm

This is a painting that was inspired by a childhood picture I had with my dad and it explores the themes of familial relations from a personal standpoint. The image illustrates the figures in a content manner in which with the lack of any detail on the background surrounding the figures I aimed to communicate an underlying kind of melancholy, with this creating a sort of remoteness within the figures. Whilst painting this, I’ve looked into subjects like nostalgic imageries and Freudian theories on the formation of the self, explored through the means of one’s childhood memories and recollections of certain affect-laden associations with the past.

oil on canvas, 100x160 cm 

The painting is of me with one of my cousins, along with an image of my dad with said cousin on the bottom right of the canvas. Again, this is an exploration of familial relations, based on old photographs. For this, I wanted for it to look like such photographs, whilst having parts missing from it or parts that have gone almost yellow, changed its colour, due to time, which the figure that represents myself having its body coloured in monochromatically is supposed to be referring to this and also is done so symbolically in a way that alludes to the figure potentially not fitting or feeling like they don’t fit in with the rest of the image. It’s supposed to portray an innocent picture of one’s childhood where there isn’t anything particularly desolate taking place yet when looking back at the past, you can see that you either weren’t feeling like you belonged or were pretending to the extent of which your happiness exceeded. 

oil on canvas, 50x80 cm 

This painting in nature is related to the previously mentioned ones, yet different in the way that it’s a self-portrait of my current self and it’s an exploration of the themes of identity and self-reflection. The face is obscured to narrate the feeling one has of not being able to align with oneself or that you feel alienated within the concept of who you are. The name of the painting was also supposed to be like a word play on the saying 'losing face', which since the painting is more of an inner reflection, I deemed it would be an appropriate representation of the idea of trying to come to terms with one’s identity and finding solace in letting go of previous set notion surrounding memories and expectations that the painting is trying to convey.  

oil on canvas, (counting the spaces in between) approx. 160x172 cm

closeup image of the degree show installation.