An Inappropriate Reflection of Guilt

An Inappropriate Reflection of Guilt

 

Presenting works depicting some obvious reasons in our society why one could become homeless.

This is Ozturk’s third collection of art and was shown at GlaxoSmithKline Headquarters, Brentford, Middlesex in September 2011.  He has done so to help raise awareness and funds for various charities.

The Exhibition

Most homeless people are stereotyped as drunks, drug addicts, lazy, so on and so forth. This perception is misleading; the truth is far from that.  Nobody ever woke up one morning and said, “I know, I’ll live on the streets, be homeless and scrounge off the state, sleep on filthy pavements, drink alcohol all day, live in a cardboard box and beg”.

The issues surrounding why an individual could become homeless are diverse and demonstrate the way in which we, as a Society, in a Democratic Country, are failing many of our fellow countrymen, women and children.

One should consider the roots of our problems, the issues start much earlier than we realise. We are a Society driven partly by money, greed, and selfishness, but it’s not all bad as we are also generous. What bothered me the most in my research is the fact there are so many people who have become homeless. In this country alone there are three million children living in poverty, many of whom will not have a chance and many of them may become drug users or alcoholics’, suffer abuse and have many more reasons to leave their so called homes for the streets as an attempt to escape.

Over the years Charities have formed to try and pick up the pieces but it is our Governments over and over again that have failed to deal with the main issues.  The stock pile of poverty increases every day and the chances of becoming homeless are increasing.

Conclusion

‘Homelessness’ means lost talents, aspirations and faded dreams.  A good percentage of these hopes wither away never to be realised.  The homeless world falls on deaf ears, caught by a glimpse of an insensitive passerby who is often more fortunate.

Having researched this subject I seriously considered producing images which are indeed less palatable; instead I created works that can be sold to hang in homes throughout the country. I consider it my civic duty to create awareness for this subject matter. Most of the images created for this collection are pretty tame, that is to say, “not full on”.

Homelessness has risen seventeen percent this year; I’m pretty disappointed and upset with what I have discovered, it’s a shameful awakening, it is An Inappropriate Reflection of Guilt.

Namik Ozturk

Artist