by Carla Scarano D’Antonio
14 January–2 April 2023, The Lightbox, Woking
Captivating and inspiring, the new exhibition in the Upper Gallery at The Lightbox in Woking displays the artworks of Nagihan Seymour. She features the patterns of Turkish art (15th century), linking them to the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci sequence and creating high-quality geometric patterns in the style of Tezhip art illumination (Tezhip meaning ‘ornamenting in gold’). She uses 11–24 carat gold leaf in her works as well as acrylics, gouache and watercolour paints, exploring the Golden Ratio in geometrical designs which are connected to the natural world and express the ornamental patterns in repetitions of shapes and in stylisation.
Nagihan Seymour trained to be an engineer so her roots are in science and mathematics, and she combines these with her knowledge and practice of illumination that she has been studying since her university years in Istanbul. She had two previous solo exhibitions at The Lightbox in 2017 and 2021. Her responses to traditional Turkish art are precious and contribute to a unique vision that in the past was used to illustrate significant works such as poems and the Quran.
In art the Golden Ratio has been interpreted as a divine proportion; it is mentioned in Luca Pacioli’s De Divina Proportione (written in 1497 and published in 1509), which was illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci with three-dimensional geometric solids. The idea is aesthetically pleasing and the forms refer to the natural world, for example in the shape of the nautilus shell and in the human body. The Golden Ratio creates order and balance in interesting compositions that are simple and beautiful. The preciousness is in the detailed and precise repetitions and juxtapositions of forms and in the use of pigments, especially the gold leaf, which might be linked to the sun, while the blues might represent the sky in a cosmos perspective. The connection with the Fibonacci sequence validates the pictures related to the human body and specifically to the human brain and to the shape of the skull; their dimensions follow the concept of the Golden Ratio as well as the respective shapes of the uterus and the heart.
Harmony and balance, and eventually perfection, are central to most of the pieces on display; the artworks are particularly controlled by the rules of the Golden Ratio and the artistic method of Tezhip. They convey a sense of peace and a certain view of the universe that encompasses living creatures as well as inanimate objects. The aim is to create beauty that reflects nature in an intellectual way which is well-ordered and illustrated in detail. The works are linked to the body and therefore reveal a comprehensive concept that incorporates all of our world.
The exhibition also displays hand-painted tiles in Baba Nakkas style (15th century) and honeycombs with bees. Particularly interesting is ‘Koi Fish’ (2021), a symbol of prosperity and good fortune and also of perseverance in the face of adversity in Japanese culture, in which the vibrant gold and orange fish overlaps the round blue shape of what might represent the universe or planet earth. The pieces inspired by the Golden Ratio have the shape of mandala and are reminiscent of flowers as well. This is a riveting exhibition that revisits traditional Turkish art and reshapes reality in a pleasant, ordered vision emphasising beauty and cultural values.
Nagihan Seymour’s artworks are on sale from £65 (ceramic pieces) to £1,750. More information can be found on her website: www.nagihanseymour.com
Woking Writers Circle 