D<raw>ings

About the exhibition

D<raw>ings, by Dilruba Tayfun

Painter Jo Baer once said that drawing is akin to thinking, and painting is more like shouting. For me the curious distinction between them is the level of active engagement of the total physical body; of mine andthe natural objects I work with. How vulnerable we are to each other’s physical presence in the process of working together on location. While drawing, I forget my own body. I am pure spirit, with no awareness of what I’m putting down onto the digital canvas, leaving drawn layers raw.

I draw on-the-go on my iPad and iPhone, using custom digital brushes, carrying the studio with me in a compact hybrid form. One of my cherished and most vulnerable companions, the fibrous remains of Neptune Grass - I call ‘Fuzzball’, can stay bathing in a salty tub i installed for it at the studio -- as its digital twin fits in my pocket.In 2021 I led a team of four creatives to create a prototype website of a hybrid material library with open-source digital brushes of real-life objects. Togather, winner of Sony Talent League in 2021, was envisioned to empower creatives to diversify and inspire their digital projects by including earth’s original storytellers such as grasses, seeds, stones. The brushes are created in-app, through merging photographs of the grain <texture> and shape <container> expressed by an object when applied with ink across a surface - the components to make a digital brush file. The original Togather brushes are still in use across the world and the initiative is simmering through activities and research.

‘Hazelnut holders’ , Whaletail, Fuzzball and more are encoded in these drawings, creating a sense of place and infusing a tactile foundation in the digital domain. At Codam, we believe in the powerful intersection of art and technology. As a programming school, we embrace creativity not just in code but in how we engage with the world around us. That’s why we were excited to showcase Dilruba’s work that beautifully bridges the gap between nature and the digital realm.

As curators, we were drawn to Dilruba’s approach of gathering natural objects from her environment and transforming them into digital brushes and tools. By capturing the essence of materials and reimagining them in a new medium, she challenges the boundaries between the organic and the virtual. This exhibition transcends space and time, taking us on a journey to a painter’s studio in Turkey, a lucid jazz bar in the UK, behind the scenes at the National Ballet in the Netherlands. For us it’s about fostering dialogue on how technology can amplify creativity rather than replace it. We are thrilled to bring D<raw>ings to our space and look forward to inspiring our community with the endless possibilities at the intersection of code, art, and nature.

Co-curated by Sven van Hasselt, Tanya Kremnov, Vova Shkonda, Chriss Rasche

Acknowledgements:

D<raw>ings is made possible with the generous support of Corinne Vigreux; founder of Codam College, co-founder and CMO of TomTom. Thank you to Luisa Garcia, Bianca Lavalle, Katrina Dew Harple, Lara Kok, Togather’s OG team consisting of Marie-Claire Springham, Ari Snow, Ruben de Haas, as well as contributor Kenn Lam. Victoria Ous & Codam’s Edwin, Renee, Marianne, Idris, Contact’s Lipo & Marion, Van der Linde’s Bob, Sander, Tjitske & Marina, Fotolab Kiekie’s Dan & Pier and De Kijm & Zonen.

Website: www.dilrubatayfun.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dilrubatayfun/
Contact: hi@dilrubatayfun.com