Emir Karyo (2000) is a graphic designer, multi-disciplinary artist and a mischievous explorer based in the Netherlands, who is originally from Istanbul. He relocated to The Hague in 2018 to pursue a degree in Graphic Design at the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK). In 2021, he completed his internship at bus.group, Berlin. Emir's practice focuses on investigating visual language and concepts through his passion for self-contradicting obscure topics. He employs various storytelling tools such as airbrush, sculptures, and screens to deliver multi-sensory impact. Through exploring distinct yet interconnected techniques with synthesizing analog and digital workflows, he hopes to find a common ground between graphic design and fine arts. By taking the viewer on a journey from the familiar to the unknown, he introduces them to realms where reality and fantasy intersect, and where the absurd and satirical coexist.
Express Orient - The project investigates the ever-growing corruption and downhill of modern Turkey; the country I have grown up in. Such a culturally rich land, connecting the West and the East, entered a downhill of embracing a nostalgic image of the Ottoman era in recent years. By using religious rhetoric and propaganda, the leaders of the country became a dictator family. My graduation project ‘Express Orient’ is a fictional abandoned theme park where the promised collective fun never arrives. In this doomed land, the entertainments appear dysfunctional for society while serving the ideological propaganda of the political leaders.
The installation consists of a large-size airbrushed poster that functions as the map of this theme park together with a life-size sculpture of a dolphin which materializes the entrance of the park. This innocent-looking dolphin is actually a ruthless cyborg with a 7/24 surveillance camera installed on its flesh. “Y9” is actually a remake of the Turkish motorcycle police crew’s logo and it is responsible for the park’s security; making sure that anyone else than current leaders can not enter.
{A.T.A(16IB)((SC))(((3.4MSK)))((((7MT))))} - {A.T.A(16IB)((SC))(((3.4MSK)))((((7MT))))} is a 124 pages publication that offers a unique perspective on the 16th Istanbul Biennial and the ethical discourses it generates. By combining my own research and content with T.J. Demos' "Against The Anthropocene", readers are offered a simultaneous reading experience that delves into the environmental paradox surrounding the 2019 edition of the biennial. Despite the 2019 edition of the Biennial being centred around an environmental theme, namely "The 7th Continent," it was also sponsored by large corporations that are known to have negative impacts on the environment. This paradox became an inspiration to conduct extensive research on the topic, which is reflected in the publication. Throughout the publication, the main point that is stressed is the connections between environmental struggles and their representations in visual culture.
Subaru Imprisoned WRX-STI 2006 (2022) - Our childhood deeply relates to being restless, while trying to rest and build up sleeping habits; we explore the most intense experiences while doing the least physical work. Childhood is the time when the unidentified visions in dreams start to overlap with the appearance of familiar notions. This appearance may result as the end of the lucid and enjoyable journey, as a trap that is hardly possible to escape; just like being on a highway inside a super-fast vehicle with doors locked. The installation showcases two states of the sleeping process. The first side is based on the transitional state that one goes through while merging with the bed. The process of losing consciousness develops to a further state on the other side. On this side, the consciousness strikes back; while still in the deep dream. This strike results in visuals that are recognizable from the real world. The characters and objects start to contextualize in situations of destruction and alteration. The container of the paintings becomes a transportation vehicle for a child's dream, traveling in between these two realms.
Internment of Nowhere To Be Found - In this work Emir Karyo and Jan Wojda explore the parallel relationships between the sensitivity of data-storage and missing persons. Both leave trace artifacts behind that function as tributes and final evidence of people being alive and not having been forgotten. This work is based on a collection of 1648 carefully scraped images found on the platform of the International Center For Unidentified & Missing Persons. The collection contains data focused on finding people that are lost or unidentified. Updates of these cases contain physical descriptions, personal items, circumstances of disappearance supported by original photographs and reconstructed age-progressed images. The more recent images appear in different techniques in comparison to the older ones. The technological development on investigation and identification offers new possibilities for re-creations. While these images are being reprocessed some things disappear, both intentionally and unintentionally, while other things start to bond between the changing pixels. This process starts a loop of re-interpreted images as the transforming cycle takes off.
Good Luck In Toyland – Duo exhibition with Jan Wojda - GOOD LUCK IN TOYLAND 'is a duo exhibition and ongoing project by Emir Karyo & Jan Wojda. It is based on a fictional narrative that is influenced by a big bureau of memories and how it took place in our lives. A journey of exploring never-ending, lucid and absurd nightmares from child-hood which shaped itself as an exhibition and created memorials that would introduce the other side of the wall to the viewer. The works are affected by the crossover of reality and delusion and how it appears in a big destruction based on the split second of waking up.
Mistaken Identity - The video compiles requested personal data from various social media accounts, using the rights given by GDPR2. The big pile of collected information creates a self-digital footprint which never managed to sync with the real one. Machines are generating and developing infinite amount of misleading/false information with re-processing systems which in the bigger picture depicts a mistaken identity.
Juxtapose; Afterimages - Exhibition poster and identity for 'Juxtapose; Afterimages' by Hi Kyung and Yoon Shun in Korea Kulturzentrum, Vienna.
Lucid Daydreaming - 120 handmade custom A5 cards for bus.group. Each unique piece is done with a mixture of risoprint, airbrush and acrylics.
