Bihter Yasemin Adalı

Inspired by the works of Fluxus Artists, Bihter Yasemin Adalı left the Painting Program at the School of Fine Arts in Mimar Sinan University in 2003 to focus on interdisciplinary art at the School of Art and Design at the State University of New
York at Purchase where she designed her own course work combining the study of drawing/painting, dance, history of art and architecture, psychology with new media. Through such cross overs, she rediscovered drawing/painting as a performative
process that not only simultaneously generates line, movement and sound, but also narratives; that the process of drawing/painting is akin to the entry of an
archeological site, an initiation into excavating the psyche through a visitation into the personal and collective unconscious. Much like the free association of Freudian psychoanalysts and the active imagination process of Jungians, the act of drawing/painting results in the spontaneous rise of symbolic imagery belonging to an invisible inner space. When these images are embodied and enacted during performance, the invisible inner space is made visible, the manifold of hidden meanings are uncovered. Upon graduation from Purchase, Adalı continued her pursuit of bringing images to life through her training at Tamalpa Institute in California, where she had the great fortune to study with postmodern dance pioneers Anna Halprin and Soto G. Hoffman. Here, besides from receiving immersive training towards becoming an expressive art therapist, Bihter Yasemin Adalı developed her presence as performer, honed her skills in structuring cross disciplinary collaborations and most importantly, she deepened her understanding of art as an integrative force. Through her study of the Tamalpa Life-Art process, she discovered art as a way of connecting the fragments of the self, repairing the broken bridges between mind and body, the individual and the community, human and the earth through phenomenal practices like art in the environment and community art. The inner landscapes: the poetic spaces that reside within our minds and bodies, the overarching theme of Bihter Yasemin Adalı’s art is depicted in ‘Sexuality of Mountains, Hills and Other Household Objects’ (2018) multi-panel landscape paintings and her performance based works, which she has created in collaboration with artists coming from diverse backgrounds since 2005. Bihter Yasemin Adalı pursues a dual career as an artist and an art therapist in private practice since her return home to İstanbul in 2011.