
Berke Doğanoğlu
The painting “Singer” is one of the rare instances in Berke Doğanoğlu’s work where a face is depicted, although this figure is set in tension against the materiality of paint and the texture of the canvas. While this fragment of a face emphasizes the eyes and the make up, the figure is looking away from the viewer. The expression is ambiguous and difficult to decipher. The psychological relationship is introverted, as the gaze eschews a direct encounter in what could be interpreted as a gesture of disengagement. The painting’s atmosphere creates a dynamic tension between exposure and introversion, the public, performative and recorded nature of the act of “singing” and the internal, bodily resounding of one’s own voice.