A “TWO-PLUS-TWO” exhibition at ACME Studios, in association with filmpro
Paintings, vintage portraits and original photos by Çağlar Kimyoncu and Michael Achtman. Curated by Zeynep Dagli.
To hear the audio description of all the images in the exhibition, click on the following links:
https://filmpro.org/sonder-michael-ad/
https://filmpro.org/sonder-caglar-ad/
Exhibition continues to 26 October 2025, by appointment only – call +44 (0)79 4451 3590 or email: intouch@filmpro.org to schedule your visit.
ACME Studios, 276 Oak Square, London SW9 9AW
Closest tube: Brixton or Stockwell
Gallery is wheelchair accessible with accessible toilets. Audio description provided.
Sonder: The feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles. The term was coined by John Koenig for his The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of invented words for emotions that are difficult to express.
Lives caught in passing or forgotten. Portraits of people and spaces. The traces we leave behind.
Image descriptions (from left to right):
1) I call this portrait the poet, a young man in his twenties seen face forward from the chest up, looking directly out at the viewer. His face is divided in half, with the light portion on the right painted in pale turquoise and the shadowed portion on the left painted in dark purple. He has a cleft chin whose indentation is painted in purple. He wears his bright orange, slicked down hair parted on the side, with a single orange eyebrow stretching across his brow, and red and pink full lips. He wears a thin gold oval shaped pince nez, that is wiry spectacles that rest on his nose without side supports. He wears a dark blue jacket, a pale yellow wing collared shirt, and a full blue cravat or neck tie with a pale yellow handkerchief visible in his chest pocket. He rests against a bright pink background decorated with daisy like blossoms that are coloured pale and dark green and grey.
2) The basis for the portrait of two young boys, this sepia toned photo shows two boys sitting on a weather beaten but ornate chair, seen from the waist up. Both are light skinned with buzzed haircuts, and they both wear sailors suits, dark double breasted jackets over white shirts that have a wide bib-like collar edged in stripes. They rest the top of their heads against each other, creating a sense of brotherly intimacy. The boy on the left could be four or five and he looks off to the right, while the older boy on the left, about eight or nine, stares directly at us with a serious expression.
3) This portrait shows a young woman seen in three quarters profile so that she’s looking towards us over her left shoulder, with a pensive or melancholy expression. Her face with full cheeks is painted in skin tones of pale yellow, orange and red and her nose curves inwards and comes to a point, a bit like a ski jump. Her mouth is painted pale green as are her eyelids, while her irises are purple. Her forest green hair is parted on the side and tied back in a bun and she has a gold hair pin clipping it on one side at eye level. She wears a maroon coloured top over a high collared pale purple blouse, and rests on a peachy pink coloured background that is dotted with a few large magenta coloured daisies.