Ahu Akgün: A Painter on Copper

''To Derin Print,

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I feel the struggle of breaking away from oil painting. For a painter trying to think through etching for the first time, while facing the impossibility of capturing the image in my mind in such a short time, I am also experiencing the deep satisfaction of reaching a result thanks to Derin's sincere and patient sharing. The wonderful hospitality is just a bonus.

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Looking back at the 3 weeks I spent at Derin Print, I feel like I've been playing rock-paper-scissors with the material. It’s a game where you want to see the rock, the scissors, and the paper with absolute clarity and display them side by side: they shouldn't crush, swallow, or cut one another. It rests on a fine line.

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• Light areas will be blocked out → marker / asphaltum

• The darkest areas will be determined

• Gray areas will be etched / exposed → 40 sec → (block out) → 1 min → (block out) → 4 min

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Sleepless nights: etching timings drifting into my mind between bouts of sleep, seeing the surface of copper in random scratched surfaces I encounter, a stray hair falling on the table... the state of being immersed in an intense, intellectual period of meeting and practicing with the material.

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Just before my time at Derin Print, I started connecting the themes of belonging, care, and responsibility—which I had begun exploring through oil painting—with my occasional "cat-aunting". I begin to approach the cats I "care for" and connect with, seeing and depicting this companionship through the bellies they allow me to see. They turn into a series. How perfectly timed it was to have beings I could interact with in the feline realm of the Derin Print Shop! I learn from Derin that every guest artist names these companions in their own way. So I do the same: ISI, SAFİ, PERT, MİS. The fur I dreamt of rendering on the plate, the individual scratches... To my series of oil-painted cat bellies, I add an etching of the belly of ISI, with whom I shared my chair throughout the entire process. Of course, I struggle. How easy oil painting was!

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After a week and a half, I feel like I have learned something; I must apply what I've learned. A two-element still life that I have kept in my visual archive for a long time, planning to paint it, is perfect for this. The contrast between the organic and the inorganic in this frame draws me in. It has a structure well-suited for linear and tonal work. "Perfect for an etching," I think.

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I am captivated by the planned nature of etching and, despite all the pre-planning, its surprising outcome. There is no going back for the "splinters" I would never accept in an oil painting. Etched into the copper plate in the heaviest way, settled, visible lines of exploration remain on the surface. They wink at me every time I look. I remind myself over and over: this is an etching print, I accept every single line.''

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Ahu Akgün

2026