New English Original bdg. HC. 4to. (32 x 25 cm). In English and Turkish. 315 p., color ills. 500 copies were printed. Halil Akdeniz: Cultural signs.= Kültür imleri. Text by Rifat Sahiner. The art of Akdeniz follows an evolutionary line that appears rather difficult to categorize, the plastic concerns and conceptual structuration principles of which are based on a certain principle. The evolution renders visible the concept of a unique art in which meaning and problems of form are triggered by one another, and symbols, images, and signs are in constant motion, revealing new possibilities. Akdeniz¿s use of sign from the Anatolian Civilization,with which he has long been preccupied, indicates that the artist is concerned with capturing the life reigning over these lands through the letters in the Hittite, Hattian, Phrygian, and Greek alphabets as cultural codes. The geometry of Thales, the playfulness of Heraclitus, the oracle of Nietzsche are all there. In analyzing the art of Akdeniz, it can be argued briefly that the main concern of the artist is to acquire information from cultures, discover their genetic equivalents, and to create a new design principle by unearthing this information through a kind of temporal archaeology. Particularly from the early 1990s onwards, Akdeniz attributes a new function to the canvas and the frame: extending beyond the pictorial space, he enters a new experimental phase with a plethora of new materials. While this experimentation compels the artist to relentlessly seek new associations and ways of expression, it also allows him to think of the forms and symbols he has been using from the onset within new possibilities. This book can be characterized as a journey into the roots and developmental dynamics of Halil Akdeniz¿s art and thus can be assessed as a multi-directional thought platform on how it be can interpreted within the art procedures of the past and present.
