Imagination starts with a void and goes farther than the stars. I create imaginary worlds to help conjure these endless possibilities so we can all go beyond stars and dream.
I am a Turkish-American multimedia artist. I create paintings, sculpture, photography, theater, installation, and prints. With each story I tell, I aim to start a communication dissolving the separation between us, and across time, distance and culture.
I float in the freedom of not belonging to any place yet I am my past. In my paintings, I sail along the wine-colored seas of the Bosphorus. In my songs, I walk the cobblestone streets of my first neighborhood. In my films, black and white photos of my family float on laundry lines along with my childhood dresses. At the same time, I borrow stories from people, and places I pass through. I am interested in the simplicity of Japanese aesthetics, the mysterious power of illegible Islamic calligraphy and the misty landscapes in Chinese paintings. I have a desire to feel at its deepest even if this might invite an amorous darkness, or else we float above the surface of life without going deep. This is why I talk about passion, desire, and love. To further encourage imagination, I use silences, and empty spaces that create ambiguity, where the viewer can escape from the limitations of well-defined depictions. With a sense of mystery and humor, I ask the viewer to find out what is hidden behind, through revealing and concealing. In my art, I display my innermost secrets with all the vulnerability it takes. Hence my desire for honesty.
The moon, fog, dusk, icebergs, conversations, night, and white peonies are a few of my favorite things.