“AND AS SHE DIPPED INTO THE BLUE PAINT, SHE DIPPED TOO, INTO THE PAST THERE”
FOR AUTUMN/WINTER 2025 ERDEM COLLABORATED WITH THE ARTIST KAYE DONACHIE, THE PAIR WERE CONTEMPORARIES AT THE RCA BUT THE IDEA FOR COLLABORATION WAS BORN YEARS LATER WHEN ERDEM COMMISSIONED KAYE TO PAINT HIS LATE MOTHER’S PORTRAIT. HE WAS STRUCK BY KAYE’S METHOD OF PAINTING WITH POETIC LICENSE TO RECORD A CHARACTER FROM THE PAST.
KAYE’S PORTRAITS ARE NOT LITERAL DEPICTIONS BUT ABSTRACTIONS AND MOODS, BASED ON RESEARCH AND INSTINCT. THEY HAVE AN ALMOST SPIRITUAL CAPACITY, CAPTURING SOMETHING MORE ESSENTIAL AND EVOCATIVE THAN A FIGURATIVE LIKENESS. KAYE REFERS TO THEM AS AURAS EXPLORING THE THIN VEIL BETWEEN REALITY AND IMAGINATION. SHE TALKS ABOUT FACES AS SENSATIONS AND CONDENSATIONS, HER PAINTINGS ARE NARRATIVES, PORTRAITS AS RESIDUES LEFT BY A LIFE, PIGMENT AS EMOTIONAL SHADOW.
ERDEM HAS EXPLORED THE IMAGINARY CONVERSATION BETWEEN ARTIST AND SUBJECT IN HIS COLLECTION. KAYE’S PORTRAITS OF WOMEN, WHETHER FIGURES FROM HISTORY OR UNKNOWN, ARE FEELINGS. THE COLLECTION IS FORMED OF ARCHETYPAL FEMININE SILHOUETTES AGAINST WHICH THE ETHEREALITY OF KAYE’S ARTWORKS AND THEIR EVOCATIVE PALETTE IS JUXTAPOSED AND AMPLIFIED. SHADOWS AND SOULS CAPTURED IN PAINTING THAT THE ARTIST DESCRIBES AS “FOOTNOTES IN TIME.”
