Mert Öztekin's Etchings

"The two prints we created together with Derin Print are based on simple games I have been playing with myself for years.

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Our first print, Panda, consists of four layers. The first layer is simply me capturing my own reflection on a plate I had struggled to bend, using the sugar lift technique. I had previously experimented with this method on different materials such as mirrors, CDs, and tin-like surfaces. In the second layer, I followed dear Derin's suggestion and, with the soft ground technique, added panda ears and texture to the face of this serious man gazing down at us. In the last layer, this time I asked Derin to use the water bite aquatint technique, which she had not tried before. The result satisfied all of us. Finally, with Japanese paper, we added patterns to the character’s shirt. The title of the work was given by dear Güçlü Öztekin.

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In the print titled ''5 Kardeşler'', I transferred the mold of my hand onto the plate and added a portrait to each finger using the hard ground etching.

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Beyond the technical explanations, our one-month work at Derin Print reminded me that the actual surface we are working on is much broader than the plate or any other physical surface. At times, I thought of etching as a slow photographic technique created through interventions. At the same time, I realized for myself that at the beginning of each work, the direction always seems to be India, but the real destination is always America."

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Mert Öztekin

2025