Boundary by Görkem Acaroglu

Featuring oil on canvas works by Turkish-Australian artist Görkem Acaroglu, Boundary explores the immune system as a border between self and other. Inspired by the ancient Turkish tradition of coffee ground readings, Görkem paints the hidden forms she sees in the coffee grounds to create “maps” of present moments. A list of Turkish coffee reading symbols and their meanings is displayed, inviting viewers to hunt inside the paintings, “reading” them as if they are fortunes to be told. Görkem Acaroglu is a multi-artform practitioner based in Woodend in regional Victoria. Coffee grounds have been read as a form of divination for many centuries, first appearing in Ottoman palaces in the 1500s. Turkish coffee’s thick sediment settles after the coffee has been consumed, forming patterns and symbols that can be divined.