At the Ismet V.Güney Art Centre in Nicosia

By Heidi Trautmann

In my announcement of Roya’s exhibition I said: ‘Nature. It should be our religion, it should be our morning prayer and the last thought when we close the gate of our garden.’ I went to the opening evening on April 21in the beautiful rooms of the Ismet Güney halls in Nicosia and found my statement confirmed, more than confirmed.

I invite you to come with me on a virtual tour through the exhibition, along the natural stone walls.

First of all I recognised that the presentation of the works as a whole was very delicate, the interrelation of space and art works, the installations with reference to themes, and especially the framing and the bases were in direct connection with the characteristics of the objets d’art. The frames were made of old wood, individually adapted to the contents, the bases equally well prepared.

Here a handful of leaves painted gold on a waxed black background with a spider net over it;  some flower petals together with the delicate housing of a wasp connected by haulms;  parts of palm tree cuttings, re-shaped;  single beautifully shaped leaves used to create a different image, or pine cones taken apart into small fragments and re-arranged; seed vessels of different plants made into pictures. Skins of fruit, cut into shapes and arranged newly;  pieces of plants cut finely and put together in various patterns, carob tree capsules given a new purpose; skins of the leathery pomegranates stitched together and even the dried seeds of pomegranates are used for a new design. Fascinating. Parts of plants dried and stitched on pieces of cloths or glued onto pieces of glass and there: cross sections of plants arranged as angel wings. A new meaning of things that are all present in our life without us noticing.

In the second hall Roya has put up a video installation of nature in motion accompanied by music; do we still listen to the tunes of nature? The whispers of grass moved by soft winds, the humming of bees in the rosemary bushes, the cry of trees when they are shaken by a storm, we don’t hear them anymore, we have turned our face away and our ears are blocked by the noise we make ourselves or the electronic devices we are playing with.  There was a tree installation, a sort of wishing tree,  inviting people to hang up pieces of nature with the material laid out to use, to take them into their hands one by one to recognise them and bind them onto the branches.

There are many movements getting active, not only in the arts but also across all fields of society to make us aware that we are heading in the wrong direction, and that we are losing contact to our earth.  Eco-Art, Eco Life, the Slow Movement with Slow Cities and Slow Theatre and so forth. The creative people in our society are realising the danger and try to shake us awake.

Read my announcement of this exhibition with more details on my website www.heiditrautmann.com under Cyprus Cultural Events and there are more photos of this exhibition under Cyprus Art News on my website.

The exhibition will be open until 30 April, 2014. Viewing times are according to official governmental office hours.