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Nomadic Tales - Millennium Gallery Sheffield 2020
Nomadic Tales is inspired by the work of 14th century artist and storyteller Siyah Kalem, also known as the Black Pen. Siyah Kalem’s work depicts the lives and beliefs of nomadic communities along the silk road, traversing the borders of Iran, Turkey, China, and Mongolia, during the Middle Ages. This body of work represents a 15-year engagement with these drawings during which time Bartle spent long periods living and working in Istanbul.
Nomadic Tales includes new large-scale paintings and sculpture in which Bartle consciously decodes and re-presents imagery that includes architectural and design motifs, marks appropriated from graffiti and street art, stencil art representations of political figures and individuals Bartle encountered, and a textural language made using objects found in the streets of Istanbul. The figures in the works often function as vessels or reversed shadow puppets, onto which something more physical, about the act of painting, has been enacted. Through this intersection of the historic and contemporary, intention and interpretation Bartle explores the potential of mythic narratives to span cultural boundaries.
“For over a decade Siyah Kalem has been the prism through which I witnessed contemporary life in Istanbul. His beautiful illustrations of 14th century life always seemed to be reflected in the world around me. He was the conduit through which my own enquiry and reframing of the rich texture of the city took place.”
Richard Bartle
© Richard Bartle, all rights reserved.