Artist reimagines Hollywood films and western classics as 16th-century Ottoman miniatures

Taking his inspiration from illuminated manuscripts, Murat Palta reimagines the climactic scenes of famous novels.

Mars Attacks by Murat Palta was displayed at the Contemporary Istanbul exhibition. Courtesy X-ist gallery

During the 19th century, a thirst for the exotic led European painters, writers and artists to the area known as the Orient – modern-day Turkey, Greece, North Africa and the Middle East. The journeys inspired some great works, yet nevertheless reinforced negative stereotypes about the region.

A blend of fact and fantasy, Orientalist paintings depicted the “exotic East” as primitive and violent, but also seductive and alluring, filled with beautiful women locked away in harems, existing solely to fulfil the desires of men.

This history of propagandistic western art about the East, filled with fantasy and cultural clichés, adds a delicious subversive edge to the playful humour of works by young Turkish artist Murat Palta.

The 26-year-old creates elaborate prints capturing scenes from classics of western literature and cult Hollywood movies and TV shows, executed in the style of traditional 16th-century Ottoman miniatures.

Taking his inspiration from illuminated manuscripts, he reimagines the climactic scenes of famous novels – Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, or classic films such as Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds or Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark – in the highly decorative, two-dimensional style of traditional miniature paintings.

“I always had an interest in traditional arts,” says Palta. “I studied graphic design at university and I was always interested in illustration. I saw a common point between modern illustration and what we call miniature art, because they were the illustrations in manuscripts – they reflected the text. I thought that they were in a way the origin of what we today call illustration art, so I decided to take it to another level.”

Istanbul-based gallery x-ist exhibited a selection of Palta's work at the 11th edition of Contemporary Istanbul, which ended on Sunday.

Palta’s works attracted significant crowds and individuals, who spent time deciphering the film and novel inspiring each artwork.

When it comes to choosing which books and films to depict, Palta says there are two criteria.

“There must be some connection point between western and eastern culture, that’s a must,” he says.

“And there must be some points that can be adapted to a medieval style.”

In keeping with traditional miniature art, Palta ignores the conventional rules of perspective. Colourful contrasting patterns enliven backdrops featuring traditional Islamic buildings with domed roofs and arched windows, swirling clouds and stylised trees. Each image is ringed with an ornate border and made to look aged, as though it really dates back 400 years.

In his depiction of cult movie Mars Attacks!, Palta portrays a space ship using a laser beam to set fire to the domed roof of a traditional Ottoman building. Robed men in elaborate turbans watch from inside, or hide behind a small hill, as bright green aliens with glass domes protecting their heads take over.

Executed in greyscale accented with gold, Palta's take on The Birds captures a woman in a black dress running across a barren landscape, pursued by vicious black birds. Inside an ornate building decorated with geometric patterns, a turbaned man watches her, calmly smoking a cigar with a crow perched on the end.

Palta used lightboxes to display his film-inspired works, creating a vivid, backlit effect that evokes a TV screen. In The Birds, he juxtaposes two layers of illustration, one placed in front of the other, allowing him to create a sense of depth and perspective while remaining true to the Ottoman style of illustration. His depictions of novels often feature boxed texts providing clues to the books that inspired the work.

Palta also used his appearance at Contemporary Istanbul to showcase several new pieces that mark his first foray into other mediums.

A large rug captured a scene from the Ridley Scott film Alien, showing the coiled form of the enormous predator at the top and underneath it the human character, Ripley, clad in traditional Ottoman sherwal trousers and wielding a flame-thrower.

A series of ceramic plates, decorated with blue and white drawings, capture scenes from films and TV series, including The Lord of the Rings and the 1980s cartoon He-Man.

Palta says his work shouldn’t be viewed as criticism of the West, but a way to find common ground.

“I wanted to combine eastern and western culture and also the present and the past,” he says.

“There were some manuscripts in the Ottoman era that were already classics at that time, and they were all illustrated in traditional Ottoman style. For instance, there are some illustrations characterising Alexander the Great, but it was all in Ottoman style, with big onion hats and that kind of thing. I thought if these books were in that era, it would be more or less the same.”