The artist's use of this highly recognisable image is playing with the relationship between personal and cultural identity, new and historical imagery as well as geographical ideas, faith and truth. A painting of a cliched, ubiquitous image of an eye: not even an eye – a curious eye – found in the bizarre – A Nazar in a Turkish Bazaar.  

The artist plays with his surname/signature name ‘Turk’ and the Nazar (Evil Eye) as a souvenir of the country Turkey. A coloured glass ornament or pendant, the Turkish eye is a talisman used to deflect negative feelings, especially those of jealousy away from the user or wearer. The premise of the evil eye is based on a belief in the power of the gaze, simply by looking or being looked at could irreversibly change a person’s fortune. It implies the uneasy relationship between the subject (the eye) and the object (the eyed). In this tondo painting made using poured paint on canvas - not glass, the curious eye might perhaps remind the viewer of modern paintings including Pop Art targets. 

Turkic Eye

Poured acrylic paint on tondo canvas 

<p>The artist's use of this highly recognisable image is playing with the relationship between personal and cultural identity, new and historical imagery as well as geographical ideas, faith and truth. A painting of a cliched, ubiquitous image of an eye: not even an eye – a curious eye – found in the bizarre – A Nazar in a Turkish Bazaar.  </p><p>The artist plays with his surname/signature name ‘Turk’ and the Nazar (Evil Eye) as a souvenir of the country Turkey. A coloured glass ornament or pendant, the Turkish eye is a talisman used to deflect negative feelings, especially those of jealousy away from the user or wearer. The premise of the evil eye is based on a belief in the power of the gaze, simply by looking or being looked at could irreversibly change a person’s fortune. It implies the uneasy relationship between the subject (the eye) and the object (the eyed). In this tondo painting made using poured paint on canvas - not glass, the curious eye might perhaps remind the viewer of modern paintings including Pop Art targets.</p>

Eyes

Painting

The artist's use of this highly recognisable image is playing with the relationship between personal and cultural identity, new and historical imagery as well as geographical ideas, faith and truth. A painting of a cliched, ubiquitous image of an eye: not even an eye – a curious eye – found in the bizarre – A Nazar in a Turkish Bazaar. The artist plays with his surname/signature name ‘Turk’ and the Nazar (Evil Eye) as a souvenir of the country Turkey.