M.K. PERKER Night Shift

Pilot Gallery is happy to host one of the most important actors of the comics world M.K. Perker’s first solo exhibition in Turkey; Night Shift. The exhibition will be opened on 12 March and can be visited until 18 April.

Night Shift series consists of 30 drawings made with ink on paper, which Perker started working on at night when it got dark and stopped working when it got bright by the morning.

The artist states: ‘For 30 years, I have drawn for many publications such as The New York Time, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Hürriyet, Esquire, The Progresive or The New Yorker. The common trouble I felt while drawing for every project was that each one had a deadline. But this also brings a great problem solving ability to an artist. I started this series with the intention of creating 'works without deadlines'. But I think I created a fictional deadline for myself by working just during the night and not touching these patterns during the day deliberately. Like a reverse Cinderella; as if papers, pens and ink would turn into a pumpkin not at midnight but at sunrise.’

In Perker’s works, in the dark, there are symbols, characters, and most importantly, an ambiance that makes itself apparent in each drawing. At some point, a kind of ‘family oddity’ catches the eye. It is a surreal family that repeats, implies, accompanies each other. It is safe and uncanny at the same time.

The Night Shift series take us on a trip at midnight in Istanbul at the beginning of the 20th century; a journey between reality and a dream. Fishes slipping from our hands, crows listening carefully, giant rabbits, people dancing as if there is no tomorrow...We are watching a big city, trying to strike a balance in chaos under the glowing moonlight. In each drawing, we see various spaces; somestimes imaginary, sometimes real, other angles, depths, people in different scales, animals, fears, undertakings, meetings, separations, pauses and moments... When different situations expressed by the same size, this same scale, this fixed frame transforms into a door that opens to this strange world.

In M.K. Perker's words; the drawings in the Night Shift series hope that the viewer will be in Wonderland, following the white rabbit in a suit rushing in fear of not catching up with his possible deadline.

Whichever of these 30 doors you enter through, you will be there.

About the artist:

Perker draws for important Turkish humour magazines such as Gırgır, LeMan and Penguen as well as USA’s major publications; New Yorker, New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal. Perker has published eleven boks from Image, Dark Horse and DC; the prestigous publishing houses of comics as well as many important comic books in Turkish from Karakarga Publications which he has founded several years ago. He also has five comics and cartoon albums published in Turkish. Perker has been nominated for Eisner Award , the comic books’ Oscar; and he is the first and only Turkish member of the Society of Illustrators.