Melike Kılıç

Melike Kılıç (b. 1982) is a Turkish artist who tells stories through drawings and delicate paper cutouts. She grew up in a small village in Sebinkarahisar, and currently works in Istanbul. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Marmara University, where she also received her Masters in Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts. Then, she studied in Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien for graphic and printmaking. Kılıç is a storyteller, where she draws inspirations from her own childhood, and creates her own little world. Kılıç states that her creations are a neverland that is formed and shaped by her immigration experience from her village to a metropolis. A lot of her works show children, often playing in nature. That is her visual description of neverland, the earthly notions. She uses all of the artistic elements to create stories that show nature, but also magical beings like dragons and monsters. Kılıç’s artworks break the boundary between a drawing and a sculpture, as they merge into a whole new discipline of art. She draws on paper with ink and watercolor, which she then hand cuts the outlines of the objects and figures. The cutouts are layered to create a diorama-like environment. Because of its three-dimensional nature, the elements in the small world seem to come alive especially when the viewer walks around it. While Kılıç’s drawings are very delicate and detailed, they are not overwhelming. They have a sense of simplicity and convey poetics. Rather than portraying a scene that is immediately recognizable, she decides to allow the audience to interpret and read their own narratives from her artworks. The small details of the artwork draws the audiences into the artwork and lets them explore the framed worlds for a long time. This tendency of Kılıç’s works are highly reminiscent of story books many people read as a child, which adds to the nostalgic mood of her pieces.