Last month in the capital Lefkoşa there was a unique and successful exhibition called “Hanay” (meaning, a two storey house). Between May 28 and June 28, an old Cypriot house near the famous historic Büyük Han hosted the highly original works of Sevcan Çerkez, a very talented Turkish Cypriot artist. Introduced as a ceramic sculpture, mixed media, and installation exhibition, Hanay made the old Cypriot house owned by Aziz Mevlitler come alive with the hand-made and human-size ceramic sculptures of Turkish Cypriot people and characters of a past generation.

           The exhibition was further enriched by the sound effects that imitated the way the characters represented by the sculptures would have talked if they were alive. Indeed, the recorded speech gave life to the frozen characters of an olden Cyprus. The sculptures of an old couple was accompanied by the entertaining small talk of a drunk old man and his lady nagging at each other which was performed by Ayfer and Salih Yalçın, the parents of Sevcan Çerkez. Another sculpture of a beautiful young woman painting the mysterious portrait of a young woman like herself in her bedroom was accompanied by a romantic poem written and read by Nursal Vahip, a friend of the artist.

            Çağrı Çerkez, a young musician with a promising style —also, the vocalist-guitarist of the Turkish Cypriot rock band Kaira— and the younger son of Sevcan Çerkez composed the music of “Hanay”, whereas Çağan Çerkez, her older son, set up the lighting and sound systems. Mrs. Çerkez’s husband Mustafa Çerkez was also instrumental in not only providing financial and emotional support for his accomplished wife but also building a kiln for the big, human-size sculptures. On the whole, “Hanay” exhibiting the historical moments of a prototype of the friendly and hard-working Turkish Cypriot family of an older generation was created by another sociable and productive Turkish Cypriot family of today’s North Cyprus. “Hanay” was the magical space for a time gone by and an invaluable history that felt at home. Her interest in three-dimensional art led Sevcan Çerkez to work with ceramics from the year 2000 onwards. She opened her ceramics workshop, also named “Hanay”, in Büyük Han in 2002. She started with small, hollow sculptures gradually increased the size to match the real human body. Sevcan Çerkez says that the nature that was once unspoilt and the human relations that used to be as warm as the island’s sun were the key to a Cypriot lifestyle that shaped her view of art. “Hanay” seemed to represent a longing for that authentic and vivid lifestyle.

The sensitive art of Sevcan Çerkez

Sevcan Çerkez was born in 1961 with her twin sister Semra Bayhanlı —who is a skillful artist, too— in the Küçük Kaymaklı area of Lefkoşa. “The first instant that I remember myself is in the 1963 during the war when we were wandering around with my twin sister among the tents prepared for the refugees, looking at people in astonishment. I guess that was the moment when the facial expressions of people penetrated our souls for the first time”, says Mrs. Çerkez. She sees the aim of the “Hanay” project as a sensitive contribution to immortalize the Turkish Cypriot human mimics and characters that wars and other negative externalities couldn’t destroy and revive and share these values with the people of North Cyprus with a somewhat disappointed heart. I cannot help but presume that her disappointment is a delicate response —as delicate as the minute details of her sculptures— to the somewhat less compassionate and more senseless society characterizing today’s North Cyprus.