“Surface Phenomena” (2012, work in progress) is a fragmented narrative bringing together such diverse themes as technology, sustenance, and flora along with instances from the streets of Istanbul. Technically speaking the works in the new series are comprised of a selection of Taptık ’s high definition photographs to appropriated low-resolution images. Following his two books “Kaza ve Kader” (2009) and “Nothing Surprising” (2015) the focus of “Surface Phenomena” is the idea of growth, development and the possibility of creating an axis of conversation in a polarized world. Taptık visits his muses and friends that are lost in these heated times of argument and tries to provide a different view of the events that are shaping his hometown and the world at the same time.

Ali Taptık was born in Istanbul in 1983. He is an artist and PhD Candidate in Architectural Design at ITU. Representation of urban landscape and architecture, the relationship between the individual and the city, psycho-geography and interaction of literature and visuality are some of the themes that he explores. In addition to working with institutions to document and research ever changing Istanbul, Taptık has published several books including Kaza ve Kader (Filigranes Editions, 2009); Depicting Istanbul (Akin Nalca, 2010), There are no failed experiments. (Atelier de Visu, 2012) and Nothing Surprising (Marraine Ginette, 2015). His works have been exhibited in various institutions including SALT (Istanbul), MAXXI (Rome), Ashkal Alwan (Beirut) and Venice Biennial for Architecture. Taptık is one of the founders of Bandrolsüz collective, for the distribution of independent artists’ books and also an activist that has been working on the preservation of the Historic Vegetable Gardens of Yedikule. He is also the cofounder of design agency and publishing studio Onagöre with Okay Karadayilar.