Mustafa Hulusi's post-conceptual body of work comprises a variety of different media: freely distributed newspapers, billboard campaigns, large scale ceramic walls, multi-screen video presentations and figurative/ abstract paintings. All these artworks share a loaded, dynamic visual language that plays with the psychology of perception of the natural world. His vivid depictions of ripe fruit and flowers in full bloom appear commonplace, yet concurrently they exist and exploit contemporary symbols of the exotic, or of the ‘other’ thereby touching on how a subtle yet pervasive post-colonial framework operates within our landscape of visual culture.

In Verigo, a triptych of full-bodied clusters of grapes dangle tantalizingly just out of reach. As in Aesop’s fable, Hulusi’s almost hyper-real depiction amplifies the grapes’ unattainability thus leaving us to question their desirability without ever knowing how they taste. Repeating a theme found in other works by Hulusi, this encounter with abundance, far from representing empty hedonism, builds a seductive scene sincerely and firmly grounded in problematic mortal reality. Verigo is included in Hulusi’s solo exhibition at Dirimart Gallery, Istanbul in 2016/17.