Artist Ali Cabbar Turns Robert Indiana’s Iconic “Love” into “Like”

Ali Cabbar, Like {Not Love} / Homage To Robert Indiana (2014)
Photo via: Art Daily

When Robert Indiana created his iconic “Love” sculpture in 1970, love might have been most coveted form of gratification. But in our current, Facebook-obsessed era, to get a “like” is just as good.

Or so must have thought the Turkish artist Ali Cabbar, who has reworked Indiana’s pop landmark into a large “Like” drawing, made with Bic biros.

Like {Not Love} / Homage To Robert Indiana (2014) explores how people and ideas are constantly subjected to fleeting (and shallow) appreciation in the form of likes, shares, retweets, and regrams.

The drawing is currently exhibited as part of Cabbar’s “Placebo Effect,” a solo exhibition currently on view at Istanbul’s Amerikan Hospital Operation Room Gallery.

In it, the artist also reflects on the use of the “placebo effect” in a range of topics—politics, contemporary art, sports, and alcohol—which are currently causing heated debates in Turkey.

The show gathers Cabbal’s recent output across the styles of pop and street art, through a range of media, including ballpoint pen drawings, stencils, and vinyl cut-outs.

 “Placebo Effect,” by Ali Cabbar is on view at Amerikan Hospital Operation Room Gallery, Guzelbahce Sokak 20, Istanbul, from April 2 – May 10, 2015.


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