Here, There and Everywhere: Anticipating the Art of the Future

“Urban Themes, Western/Eastern Cities,” a collaborative work by Walter (Rusty) Crump (US) and Gulay Alpay (Turkey)

I was quite honored to be chosen to be one of the participating artists of the TransCultural Exchange exhibition Here, There and Everywhere. I worked with a Turkish painter Gulay Aplay. I had met Gulay briefly on a recent trip to Istanbul (at the suggestion of TransCultural Exchange’s director Mary Sherman). We hit it off immediately; and I was very impressed with her work. Her painting is loose and free, uninhibited – where my photography is more structured and controlled. We both felt that because of the “polar differences” in our work and our different cultural backgrounds that a collaboration could produce interesting results; and, in the process, we’d have to deal with work that is so different from our own aesthetic. We looked forward to being challenged in interesting and unexpected ways. We were both pleased with the results that came out of our partnership – so much so that we hope to exhibit our work In Istanbul in 2010. Had Gulay and I not participated as partners in Here, There and Everywhere we would have remained friends, but probably not [have] worked together. Now that we have, we are now investigating future venues to show our collaborative work. I have always found that taking new and unexpected challenges results in expanding your horizons.

– Walter Crump, 2009 Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts attendee