First Sight

I was in Erzurum for the first time in 1988 and a magnificent structure caught my eye…

The double minaret madrasah. It was so majestic, so glamorous and so different from anything I’ve seen so far that the snapshot from that first encounter is still fresh in my mind.  I was even more impressed to learn that this building, which I could not take my eyes off of in the square, which fascinated me even more with its details as I got closer, was a nest of science. I was lost in the aesthetic qualities of the building, the symbolic language used in its decorations and the delicacy of its applications. In the period; I admired the respect for science, development, common life and art, and the time allotted. The artists’ mastery of geometry was unbelievable.

In this way, my sensitivity to Seljuk structures and the period began. After what I perceived from history in Istanbul, where I could observe mostly the Ottoman traditions and structures after the 17th century until that day, I have been watching at every opportunity how our ancestors chose to convey their knowledge in a plain and simple style in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.

Architectural structures were visually emphasizing their micro and macro effects in different ways but with the same strength. Artists and craftsmen, with their styles, seemed to want to make them feel a knowledge they had internalized rather than trying to impress them with their appearance. Maybe I was happy to capture such a meaning in the artistic style of the period.

The decorations, which were perceived as simple with their simplicity, were the product of calculations, not coincidence, and they were remarkable.

Journey from Erzurum to Sivas in the Footsteps of Seljuk Architecture

I felt the same excitement while watching a similar attitude in Sivas Divriği Complex 30 years later.

The relief motif decorations surrounding the majestic portal of the building date from the 13th century. They have continued to exist in an impressive way since then.

In the works of the Mughals in India, I had the chance to watch the skilful examples of geometry in decoration and structural elements.

After the British colonialism, for some reason, their names were started to be called Mugal in order not to feel their connection with the Turks. The ancestors of these artists were the Great Seljuk Empire. In the 26 years between my two experiences, I came across similar works belonging to the principalities or civilizations that were the successors of the Great Seljuk Civilization, which would arouse admiration in the geographies they reached. After the 12th century, they settled in Anatolia as principalities and transferred their knowledge and arts.

As I approached the Double Minaret Madrasa in Erzurum, the Gök Madrasa in Sivas, and the Divriği Kulliye with this curiosity, I began to see its details. Especially in geometric decorations, I read the patterns with an inner feeling as if I were reading a story. It was as if they were telling that there is a constant in the universe. Some meanings seemed to me similar to the order of life described by the ornaments carved on the stones skillfully. Depth, negative-positive balance, intertwined clustered patterns in relief decorations. It was as if these balanced and regular forms, as they combined and repeated themselves, were describing the stars that exist in different dimensions or the cells that make up us, our genetic structure. The skill or knowledge of making the whole and the smallest unit feel the same as one looks at the pattern from afar. They seemed to describe our life model, even our cells. For what purpose all these decorations were made is not my field of research. Based on what I felt while watching, I asked myself what I could convey from this culture to the present, and I decided to create my designs. This is the reason why I call my designs created with these effects “Geometry of the Universe”.