Turkish blind artist sees world through pottery

By Ahmet Sait Akcay

ANKARA

A blind man from Turkey’s Black Sea region has found a link to the seeing world through pottery.

At the weekend, Olcay Asci, 22, staged the first exhibition of his works after taking a serious interest in ceramics as a way of expressing his relationship with the outside world.

Asci, who has been blind since he was a baby and also suffers partial deafness, had been making things from clay since he was a child in Akkus, a town in the hilly province of Ordu.

“My world is basically based on my perception of objects, that’s why I get to know things by sense of touching,” he told Anadolu Agency. “I see in three dimensions.”

He added: “I touch everything I can -- products, fruits, boxes, signs -- especially while I am in a queue.”

Even though he found fashioning sculptures an outlet for his imagination from an early age, it was not until he met Funda Altin, a fine arts associate professor at Ordu University, that he began exploring his talent in earnest.

Thanks to a grant from his local municipality he was able to start attending Altin’s ceramics workshops in the city and within a year he built the collection that went on display on Sunday.

“During this time, I had to revise my teaching methods to apply them to Olcay’s work,” Altin said. “Despite difficulties, we have managed thanks to his efforts.”

“Thanks to his passion for intellectuality, reading and research, he managed to reach a level to do something his own in a short time.”

The show at the city’s art also features work by Altin. Guests at the opening included local blind people who were invited to handle the pieces.

Altin said the collaboration demonstrated how little attention people give to understanding one another in today’s world.