Habitat

"Habitat" by Işık Güner is a project in three parts: a book, a performance video and an exhibition celebrating the flora of the world. The exhibition opens in Rize–Çamlıhemşin on Friday, 19 October 2024.

HABITAT Işık Güner 19 October – 1 November 2024

Işık Güner opens her solo exhibition examining plant biodiversity and its extinction at Çinçiva School — established in Rize–Çamlıhemşin in 1910 as a secondary school and now standing idle.

The Habitat exhibition brings together Işık Güner's paintings of wild plants from many parts of the world. Through visual and sensory experience, the artist draws attention to the destruction of natural habitats and seeks to impress upon the viewer the urgent need to protect them.

Botanical art at its finest is a graceful collaboration of nature and science. Güner's watercolour paintings represent nature in its truest form. The exhibition offers meticulous scientific representations of rare plants from Turkey's diverse wild flora regions, while also taking the viewer on journeys through many other habitats — from the rainforests of Peru to arid deserts, from the high Himalayan ranges to the forests of Japan. And all of this arrives here, in Çamlıhemşin, in the wild beauty of the Fırtına Valley.

Each artwork renders the plant's exact dimensions and colours with scientific fidelity. The collection includes detailed representations of Iris caucasica M.Bieb. subsp. turcica, Iris polakii f. barnumiae and Paeonia mascula (L.) Mill. subsp. mascula, enabling the viewer to discover and explore both the scientific and aesthetic values of Turkey's rich flora.

The performance video is part of the Habitat trilogy and is shown here for the first time. It is a solo dance performance choreographed by Ebru Cansız, performed in a costume featuring plant designs painted by Işık Güner. In the film, Güner simultaneously celebrates the beauty of the natural world and confronts the dangers it faces — a stark reminder of how abruptly that beauty can end.

Işık Güner describes the purpose of the Habitat exhibition in her own words: "Nature is our home. We have a responsibility to protect the dwelling she has offered us. I would like to place this responsibility onto you, the spectator."

The third part of the Habitat project is a book of the same name. In it, Güner recounts her many journeys around the world in pursuit of wild plants, enriched by the contributions of writers and painters from other countries. The book includes the various iris species she has been chasing for years, alongside other plants documented through fieldwork carried out since 2016 in eastern and southeastern Turkey.

Habitat the book is a celebration of wild plant diversity and a plea for the protection of the habitats in which they flourish. Art and science meet within its pages, and in that encounter, a deeper understanding of what is at stake begins to take shape.

Many thanks to our principal sponsor Haremlique İstanbul for their generous support, Club House Bebek for their contributions, and to our host Moyy Atölye. The exhibition runs until 1 November 2024 and is a must for lovers of nature and art — and for all who care about the future of our precious plants.

Işık Güner, Turkey, b. 1983

After completing her degree in Environmental Engineering at Marmara University in Istanbul in 2006, Güner devoted herself full time to botanical art. She prepared 40 plates for Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile, a seven-year project published by RBGE in 2015. Many of the paintings produced for this project were awarded Gold Medals and selected as Best in Show at the international botanical art exhibitions at RHS London and BISCOT Edinburgh, and the book itself received the Excellence in Botanical Art and Illustration award in 2017. She subsequently contributed to the Transylvania Florilegium, created under the patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales, and to conservation projects including Beauty of Orchids, China and Plants of Nepal, which focused on endangered and medicinal species. Works from these projects are held in the Shirley Sherwood Collection, London; the Hunt Institute, USA; and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. She currently teaches on the Diploma in Botanical Illustration at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and serves as art editor of the Illustrated Flora of Turkey. Her instructional book Botanical Illustration from Life has been published in six languages: Turkish, English, Spanish, French, Korean and Chinese. She lives in the Fırtına Valley in northeastern Turkey and travels widely to paint plants and teach workshops around the world.

Çinçiva School

At the initiative of the Hemşin Terakki and Teavün Society, a secondary school building was constructed in the village of Çinçiva in 1910. The school served the community for many decades and produced a number of significant figures from the region. After the centralisation of the school system, the now-disused building was given new life through the efforts of Rukiye and Selçuk Güney from Çinçiva, who reopened it as Fırtına Pension. During this period it became a centre for cultural and artistic activities and a gathering point for the valley's ecological campaigns.

The local community now hopes to reimagine this historic building as a Honey Museum, in response to the valley's need for a permanent cultural and arts centre. Işık Güner's Habitat exhibition is an effort not only for plant conservation but for the preservation of the region's cultural heritage.

Contact: habitat@isikguner.com

In the Press

Art Unlimited — Merve Akar Akgün Görmek istiyorsanız gelin! https://www.unlimitedrag.com/_files/ugd/9c95f9_f5e9a4ca44784623b3056f4c2284257d.pdf

Argonotlar — Esra Melike Çuluk Zenginlik ve yok oluş arasında: "Habitat" https://argonotlar.com/zenginlik-ve-yok-olus-arasinda-habitat/

Gazete Oksijen — Şemsa Denizsel Habitat, bir Işık Güner sergisi https://gazeteoksijen.com/yazarlar/semsa-denizsel/habitat-bir-isik-guner-sergisi-226863

Gazete Oksijen — Fem Güçlütürk Habitat kaybına karşı bireysel çabalar önemli https://gazeteoksijen.com/yazarlar/fem-gucluturk/habitat-kaybina-karsi-bireysel-cabalar-onemli-225729

Bant Mag https://bantmag.com/3-soruda-isik-guner/

Magma https://www.magmadergisi.com/sanat-haberleri/bitkilerin-ressami

Kitaptan Sanattan https://www.kitaptansanattan.com/isik-guner-habitat-ile-rize-camlihemsinde/

Artfulliving https://www.artfulliving.com.tr/gundem/isik-gunerin-habitat-sergisi-rize-camlihemsinde-i-31269

Sanat Okur https://sanatokur.com/isik-gunerin-uclemeden-olusan-habitat-proje-sergisi-camlihemsinde/

Cahev https://www.cahev.com/haber-mary-mendum-ve-bir-cok-odulun-sahibi-bitki-ressami-isik-gunerden-buyuleyici-bir-sergi-habitat-20