During my time in Istanbul, I’d sometimes encounter a man on Istiklal Street selling paintings. He’d carry them around on his shoulders, occasionally making sales to pedestrians. The paintings were clearly made using expedient technique using sponges, decorating rollers and palette knives, perhaps via a production line. The results were  eye-pleasing kitsch landscapes, mountains, lakes, wildlife and trees distributed in the middle of a huge urban center, what Istanbul resident wouldn’t want all that on their apartment wall? 

It had occurred to me that these paintings not only depicted vast natural spaces, but also held the potential to accommodate extra aesthetic form. There was room for me to add my own motifs to the existing paintings without necessarily befouling the original imagery. I considered the project an act of finishing off work that had been started by strangers: collaboration from a distance. However, I kept the signatures of the original artists.

I later approached the man and asked in ‘gay Turkish’, it was the consensus among Istanbul natives that I sounded homosexual when I spoke the language,  “Hello, all paintings please can I have please thank you.” said the polite homosexual foreigner! When he realized I was serious it was all smiles and cash-in-hand friendliness, I refrained from kissing both of his cheeks though, as is customary, the relationship was strictly artistic.