Arts News

Onur Tukel's art from Septien at the Pennington Gallery July 6-8

By April MacIntyre Jul 6, 2011, 6:39 GMT

Onur Tukel\'s unique art from the film Septien will be on display at the Pennington Gallery from July 6th-July 8th, 2011.

Onur Tukel's unique art from the film Septien will be on display at the Pennington Gallery from July 6th-July 8th, 2011.

The film will be released by Sundance Selects at the IFC Center in New York on July 6th and will also be available nationwide on VOD.

The film is written and directed by Michael Tully. The cast includes Onur Tukel, Michael Tully, Robert Longstreet and Rachel Korine.

Premise

Eighteen years after disappearing without a trace, Cornelius Rawlings returns to his family's farm. While his parents are long deceased, Cornelius's brothers continue to live in isolation on this forgotten piece of land.

Ezra is a freak for two things: cleanliness and Jesus. Amos is a self-taught artist who fetishizes sports and Satan. Although back home, Cornelius is still distant. In between challenging strangers to one-on-one games, he huffs and drinks the days away.

The family's high-school sports demons show up one day in the guise of a plumber and a pretty girl. Only a mysterious drifter can redeem their souls on 4th and goal.

Michael Tully creates a backwoods world that's only a few trees away from our own, complete with characters on the edge of sanity that we can actually relate to. A hero tale gone wrong.

Michael Tully said: "When you write a screenplay in which one character is a tormented artist, you use adjectives to describe his artwork, yet you can never fully bring those images to life. That is what makes filmmaking such a delicate and frightening process. That is also what makes it so rewarding and fun, especially when you align yourself with a boundlessly talented individual like Onur Tukel and he brings your vision to life in a more startlingly perfect way than you could have ever dreamed. As we wrote the story together along with executive producer and co-star Robert Longstreet, Onur developed a subconscious understanding of his character that an artist-for-hire never would have, yet as he began to churn out piece after piece, I realized that he was reaching deep into a place that even he couldn't explain. Without this artwork, there is no Septien."

Onur Tukel created over 65 pastel and ink paintings for Michael Tully's Septien in the spring of 2010. He finished the work in about six weeks in preparation for his role of repressed middle sibling Amos Rawlings.

Having little training in art and even less in acting, Tukel's work comes across as naive and raw. There are recurring images within the artwork: a dying tree, crumpled landscapes, body parts thrown asunder, playful rabbits and turtles, crucifixions, a melancholy football player, and repeated acts of sodomy and castration. There are also images of hope and splendor: a man hitches a ride on a large shark, a small child clings to the leg of his father. Like Septien itself, Tukel's artwork asks the viewer to draw her/her own conclusions as to its meaning.

Pennington Gallery is located at 355 W. Broadway, New York, NY 10013.

Sundance Selects is a sister division of IFC Films