CollageIstanbul

CollageIstanbul


Paper Collage, 2023


Created and described by Aysun Altındağ.

[cutting and collage sounds throughout]


This artwork consists of many different layers and scattered pieces. Most of the composition is taken up with the sea, and a quarter of the image is the sky. 

[waves and harbour ambience]

There are two hills in a row located in between the sky and the sea. The mood of the collage is happy. You can feel the breeze while searching the elements through the waves. There are vivid blue tones and a crowded scene of Istanbul and the Bosphorus.


The composition is divided into five different horizontal layers. Seagulls are the dominant element. 

[seagulls in distance]

There are four big seagulls, laughing, grunting, and squawking while flying and facing right in the foreground, where the first and second horizontal layers are, and there are four smaller seagulls scattered in the background. 

On the right side of the second layer is a huge white boat with green and yellow details, greeting the city with its whistle. It is beyond one of the big seagulls. 

[ferry horn]

The third layer is in the middle of the composition; on the left is a breakwater with a white lighthouse. This breakwater is covering up the half of the third layer. There are three small boats and seagulls in this layer. 

[seagulls in distance]

The fourth layer is the last sea layer on the background of the composition, and there is one bigger and one smaller boat, a small seagull and Haydarpasa port on the right with colourful cranes. 

On top of the last layer, on the left, there is a small part of the sea and a tiny boat.
The main part of this layer is a green hill with minarets, mosques, Topkapı Palace and a castle at the skirts of the hill. 

[call to prayer]

There is another hill on the right which is grey; on it is a tower that resembles the Galata Tower with many buildings below.

[ambience fades leaving collage sounds]


I created this collage by colouring thick watercolour papers with gouache paint
and then shaping it by tearing, cutting and pasting them layer by layer. To finish, I added some details with coloured pencils. 

[collage sounds fade]