Sketchbooks of Constantinople and Hagia Sophia

Ceren Oykut’s exhibition “Sketchbooks of Constantinople and Hagia Sophia” was prepared with inspiration from the book named ” La Fondation de Constantinople et de Sainte-Sophie Dans les Traditions Turques” (The Foundation of Constantinople and Hagia Sophia in turkish Traditions) written by Stefanos Yerasimos in 1990.

Making broad landscape drawings built on details acquired from everyday life, Oykut utilizes elements from caricature, miniature and cartography. In this exhibition, Oykut intends to apply the methods that Yerosimos formulated while studying the creation and transformation processes of legends within the book, using “items” from her drawings with detaching them from their native context by cutting, cropping, dragging and multiplying to create new topographies.

Oykut also concentrates on a legend told in the book that takes place during construction of Hagia Sophia. Through a character which can be seen as a guardian, an angel, an apprentice and a victim at the same time in the legend of yet unnamed cathedral, Oykut links to contemporary Istanbul. She exhibits her works in progress and their process together to turn time and space into a living cartography.