Erdal İnci (born 1983 in Ankara) is a Turkish new media artist, as well as painter, photographer, filmmaker and Graffiti artist based in Istanbul. He is primarily known for his cloned action looped videos, which are presented online in a reduced GIF format. He studied Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Hacettepe University, graduating in 2005.TCF (Turkish Cultural Foundation), "Who's Who in Turkish Culture and Art"
Nature and intent of work İnci describes his works as creating a "human pattern"CNN, "The GIF artist who draws with humans," Daisy Carrington, Aug. 21, 2014 akin to "a photograph or a painting which is composed of moments."Directors Lounge Magazine, DL Deep Feature "Knocked for a Loop," Kenton Turk, Oct. 30, 2014 In this way, "the viewer can watch all the time phases in a small amount of time – [...] 1 or 2 seconds."Huffington Post, "Cloned Motion GIFs Show Artist Erdal Inci Experimenting With Patterns," (author uncredited), Nov. 28, 2012 He most often uses himself as the cloned figure, creating what has been called "an army of street performers."Green Prophet, "Turkish artist Erdal Inci clones himself (digitally!)," Laurie Balbo, August 16, 2014 Hereby, according to İnci, "[a] single figure is turned into a mass by cloning itself […], an expression of the 21st century's visual bombardment epoch."Today's Zaman, "Erdal İnci’s ‘Mass Ornament’ at Galerie Schultz in Berlin," Alexandra Ivanoff, March 30, 2015
These animation works, according to the artist, also address the physics of sound. Cloning motion "fills the frame," making it "perpetual, so the timeline will become like a circle" or "like a tone."Wired, "Mesmerizing GIFs Use Light and Motion to Visualize Sound," Doug Bierend, August 21, 2014 The locations selected are almost exclusively public spaces, often well-frequented urban ones that serve as a meeting point or have sociopolitical significance, such as Berlin's Alexanderplatz or Istanbul's Taksim Square.
The artist himself refers to these works as videos rather than GIF animations "because they are originally video works [exhibited] in video format […]," explaining, "There's no difference other than the size of the video."Directors Lounge Magazine, DL Deep Feature "Knocked for a Loop," Kenton Turk, Oct. 30, 2014
Exhibition İnci's broadest exhibition platform is the Internet (in GIF format), a circumstance he sees as positive, stating, "It's really good for me not to have to wait for the audience." Here, as of October 2020, his "Fire staff by Huseyin" has over 220,000 Tumblr notes (likes and reblogs).Erdal İnci, "Fire staff by Huseyin in J-fest 2012 Sundance" As well, his artwork been featured as graphic illustration of current affairs by the online version of the German publication Die Zeit (May 2015).Zeit Online, Zeitgeschehen: "Türkei, Land der Superreichen" (German) / "Süper zenginlerin ülkesi Türkiye" (Turkish), May 20, 2015
İnci has been the subject of solo exhibitions (the work here in the original HD versions) in Istanbul ("Patterns of Motion," Bauart Gallery, 2013)BAUART Galeri – Galata, “Hariket Örüntüleri/Patterns of Motion” as well as in Berlin ("The Mass Ornament," Galerie Michael Schultz, 2015).Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin Furthermore, he has participated in numerous mixed exhibitions in Istanbul and Ankara as well as in Miami, ("Moving the Still: A Festival of GIFs,” Miami Art Basel, 2012), Milan and Naples, ("The GIF Wall," Action Gallery, 2013),Action Gallery (Milan and Naples) Utrecht, ("Holland Animation Film Festival," 2014) and Bagnols-sur-Cèze, France ("Trace(s) – Festival des arts numériques," 2014). In addition, İnci's animated loops were presented in German premiere as a special feature of the 10th Berlin International Directors Lounge (February 2014).Directors Lounge, "DLX Special: Erdal Inci," January 29, 2014
On 1 March 2018, İnci's HD video 'Centipedes' went on nightly exhibition as large-scale electronic billboards in Times Square in New York City as part of the program 'Midnight Moment,' where they ran until 31 March 2018.
See also Digital art Video art
References
External links Erdal İnci official website Erdal İnci Tumblr page