Circumcision Wedding

Digital Technique, 2023

Created and described by Uğur Altun.

[Turkish wedding ambience throughout]

The cartoon-style illustration is divided into five rectangular areas and one square.

[zurna]

Each area is composed of flat, different background colours and contains symbolic images related to the city of Izmir and Turkish culture.

Two large rectangles dominate the image, filling the centre, left, and right areas. Above these is a strip of three shapes, with half the depth of the larger two, and below is a strip of two rectangles, each having around a third of the depth of the larger ones.

Looking out at us on the left, within a large rectangle of yellow, which reaches across to the centre, is a midnight blue oval-shaped evil eye bead.

[metallic shining sound]

In the centre of the eye is a black pupil within a light blue oval, inside another oval of white. The evil eye bead is usually hung on the walls of houses. According to the belief, it protects people from negative energy.

Overlaid slightly to the right of the eye is an old Beetle convertible car in bright red.

[car horn]

Driving the car, facing to the right and taking up about half of the next rectangle, is a man, and standing up in the back is a boy of primary school age.

[car engine]

Both are happy and proud. The boy is wearing a traditional circumcision outfit – a plumed hat and a white top trimmed with red. He greets us with one hand and holds a toy unicorn in the other. In Turkey, circumcised children wear traditional clothes similar to the sultan's clothes. Before the circumcision wedding, the child stands in the back seat of a classic car and proudly greets everyone.

The background of the rectangle to the right is pastel light greenish blue. Inside this rectangle, around the car, are repeating white, light blue, yellow and black flowers of different sizes. Wavy lines of midnight blue connect these flowers, and there are red dots in the spaces between the flowers.

[flowers swaying in breeze]

A strip of rectangles runs across the top of the image. We find a bagel in a small vertical rectangle in the upper left corner of the work. The background is light pink. The bagel stands upright as if balancing on an area of green. Inside all the green areas in the work, there are linear forms reminiscent of a light green leaf.

Filling most of the width of the upper section in a wide rectangle to the right of the one with the bagel is a landscape of mountain and sea views. A huge sun is rising.

[uplifting sun sound]

Right in front of it is a palm tree on the right side. In all the light blue areas, there are midnight blue lines of the same size but facing in different directions. In this way, they form a pattern.

[zurna]

The sky is decorated with a gradient grey texture.

In the upper right corner of the image, on the top section, stands a square with the white Izmir clock tower against a night blue background. To the far right of the tower, the green leaves of a palm tree contrast with the blue of the sky.

A further two rectangles run along the bottom, under the eye and the car.

[Turkish drum]

In the bottom left of the work, we find the numbers 3 and 5 within an elongated green rectangle. 35 is the licence plate number of Izmir. The background is light green with linear forms reminiscent of leaves.

[leaves rustling]

Next to it is another elongated rectangle that fills the lower right part of the work with a midnight blue background, where sunflower seeds are juxtaposed to form a pattern.

[crunch of eating seeds]

[all sounds fade]

Illustrators