How we met: Trelex, Tek-Tone, and TekTrope

This 2 Counts, Irmak Canevi, made for Tek-Tone: A fletcher buzzer exhibition platform

Nina and I first met in 2010 in Istanbul. She had just finished her first year at the Slade School of Fine Art as an MFA candidate, and she was on a school trip to my home city with her fellow Sladies. I believe it was Andrew Stahl, Head of Painting at the Slade when I was doing my BFA there, who had suggested we meet. I had returned home in 2008 upon completion of my degree and set up a studio in the Istanbul Beyoğlu district. We scheduled a studio visit and had the most wonderful day visiting galleries. Nina and I stayed in touch, mostly through Facebook, I think, and this is where her new project, the Trelex residency, caught my attention. I was excited that a friend of mine had ventured into such generous territory. I was inspired. In 2013 studio blues led me to the U.S. where I pursued an MFA at RISD in painting. I had felt the need to immerse myself in an academic environment one last time to figure things out. I had a good two years at school and I believe I made the progress I had hoped I would. Upon my return I spruced up my studio and got busy making art; but something had stirred in me since Nina's Trelex; I had started fantasizing about opening up my studio to others too. The Istanbul art scene was still growing but artist initiatives were rare. I knew there was something I could offer. I had space I could easily make available for others to work beside me, and I loved company! I had to call Nina. It so happened that she was going to have a layover at the airport in Istanbul, and we met, albeit briefly, after almost six years. She was as vibrant and inspiring as ever. It didn't take us long to agree to start an ongoing exchange of ideas about what we could do in Istanbul. The more she told me about the Trelex residencies the more I knew we thought alike. So we went for it. We decided to fashion our modest residency in Istanbul after the Trelex philosophy where anyone and everyone could apply, no conditions attached, so long as they booked a flight to Istanbul. Funnily enough, I had already hosted two artists, on a weekly basis, in the two separate slots (a vitrine of sorts if you will) of a door buzzer at RISD (TekTone: A Fletcher buzzer exhibition platform), and now I was going to host two artists in the two empty rooms of my studio. Trelex and TekTone thus merged. Enter TekTrope, a friendly space for fellow artists. Thank you Nina for making this dream of mine come true! And here is to a long lasting friendship, collaboration, cooperation, and co-creation which I know will not only make us but many others happy too.


www.irmakcanevi.com