2017-2019, clay and tea on canvas, 70 x 100 cm
Ana-Dolu marks my return to the art world during a transformative period in my life, created while I was pregnant with my second child in 2017. The title is a play on words, combining Anadolu (Turkish for Anatolia)—the historical region often referred to as the cradle of civilization—with ana dolu, Turkish for “mother-filled.” This piece reflects the intersection of my artist New Yorker past and my Turkish wife and mother present.
The piece centers around mantı, a traditional Turkish dish that is labor-intensive to make yet consumed in an instant. In Kayseri, mantı is deeply tied to marriage, often used to judge a bride-to-be's domestic skills. By making mantı from clay I render them empty and inedible.
For me, the process of making the clay mantı is a private performance of protest, a critique of the undervalued labor traditionally assigned to women.
This is an ongoing project.
2024, Clock, clay and tea, 29 cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP
Mantıksız Saat is a play on words combining mantı (the traditional Turkish dish), mantıksız (meaning “illogical”), and tıksız (suggesting “without movement” or “not working”). This piece continues the exploration of mantı introduced in Ana-Dolu, expanding its metaphorical significance.
The work reflects on the invisible time it takes to perform housework and the often-unseen labor of women. The mantı-filled clock symbolizes the irrational amount of time spent on domestic tasks—work that is both undervalued and expected to remain unnoticed.
2024, clay, approximately 3 × 2 cm each
(variable size installation)
Building on themes from Ana-Dolu, Çiğ Çiğ, Acı Acı explores resistance through the act of shaping çiğ köfte (a traditional Turkish dish) from clay. Like mantı, çiğ köfte becomes a symbol of labor-intensive work, but here it also embodies power, revolution, and protest, represented by the clenched fist. Each clay çiğ köfte reflects the negative space of a fist—a haunting imprint of absence, symbolizing silent protest, unspoken truths, and invisible labor.
This series is ongoing.
The Mommy? series uses fuse beads—a material from my children’s toys—to create large-scale, text-based works that embody the intersection of motherhood and artistic identity. The series began when my daughter asked me: “Mommy, what was your name as a kid?” This innocently profound inquiry prompted a reflection on the loss of selfhood amidst the role of mother.
Each piece in the series is made of approximately 30,000 beads and features candid questions my children have asked, including “Mommy, did you used to be an artist?”, “Mommy, can you wipe my butt?”, and “Mommy, can I have everything of yours?”
The process of ironing the beads together transforms a mundane domestic chore into an artistic act, serving as a private protest similar to the creation of clay mantı in Ana-Dolu.
The series is ongoing.
2024, fuse beads. 71 x 98cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP.
2024, fuse beads. 70.5 x 95 cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP.
2024, fuse beads. 70.5 x 97cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP.
2024, fuse beads. 70.5 x 97cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP.
2024, fuse beads. 70.5 x 97cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP.
2024, fuse beads. 70.5 x 97 cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP.
2024, fuse beads. 70.5 x 97cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP.
2024, fuse beads, 70.5 x 97cm
2024, fuse beads, 70 x 97cm
2023, fuse beads, 70 x 97 cm
2024, fuse beads. 70.5 x 97cm.
2024, fuse beads. 70 × 97 cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP.
2025, fuse beads. 70 × 97 cm, edition of 5 + 1 AP.
2024, fuse beads, 70 × 97 cm
2023, fuse beads, 70 x 97 cm
2024, fuse beads, 70.5 x 97cm
2023, fuse beads, 70.5 x 95 cm
2024, fuse beads, 70.5 x 97cm
2023, fuse beads, 70.5 x 97 cm
2023, fuse beads, 70 x 97 cm
2023, fuse beads, 70 x 97 cm
2024, monotype, acrylic on archival paper, 50 x 35 cm each
Immaculate Conception reinterprets the art historical theme of the Virgin Mary’s sinless conception through a series of prints that merge biological imagery with symbolic representations. Initially appearing to depict ovulation, closer inspection reveals ‘sperm’ as tampon prints and ‘eggs’ as impressions of my breasts.
An exploration of the concept of parthenogenesis as a metaphor for independent artistic creation.
This is an ongoing series.
2024, monotype, acrylic on archival paper, 50 x 35 cm
2024, monotype, acrylic on archival paper, 50 x 35 cm
2024, monotype, acrylic on archival paper, 50 x 35 cm
2024, monotype, acrylic on archival paper, 50 x 35 cm
2024, monotype, acrylic on archival paper, 50 x 35 cm
2024, monotype, acrylic on archival paper, 50 x 35 cm
2024, monotype, acrylic on archival paper, 50 x 35 cm
2024, monotype, acrylic on archival paper, 50 x 35 cm
2024, felt, thread, pencil, fuse-beads, my kids’ baby clothes, fiber fill, 60 × 50 × 8 cm
I had kept my children’s baby clothes in case I had another baby. I decided to create my own babies by filling these clothes with fiber andattaching a head.
This piece is a collaboration with my grandmother, who had to drop out of art school after getting married to do housework and has since continued to make crafts as a hobby.
This piece reintroduces her into the art world. For the past two years, she has been making small felt figures and keychains, and in this project, she designed and crafted the heads of my babies.
A nod to Edvard Munch's The Scream, this work also serves as a meditation on the scream as humanity's first form of communication, as well as the idea of the primal scream. Unlike Munch’s individualistic scream, this is a collective scream, echoing the cry of our times: war, poverty, pandemic, global warming, and the looming threat of the world’s end.
The evil-eye is a long-standing tradition in Turkey, meant to ward off misfortune. In Turkish culture, an evil eye is pinned to the clothes of a newborn for protection. Each of my babies is pinned with evil-eyes made from fuse beads.
This is an ongoing series.
2024, felt, thread, pencil, fuse-beads, my kids’ baby clothes, fiber fill, 60 × 50 × 8 cm
2024, felt, thread, pencil, fuse-beads, my kids’ baby clothes, fiber fill, 60 × 50 × 8 cm
2024, felt, thread, pencil, fuse-beads, my kids’ baby clothes, fiber fill, 60 × 50 × 8 cm
2024, felt, thread, pencil, fuse-beads, my kids’ baby clothes, fiber fill, 60 × 50 × 8 cm
2024, felt, thread, pencil, fuse-beads, my kids’ baby clothes, fiber fill, 60 × 50 × 8 cm
2024, fuse beads and fishing line, 18.5 × 171 cm
2024, ütülenen boncuklar ve olta ipi, 18.5 × 290 cm
Happy Brideday is a piece created as part of my broader exploration into the intersection of childhood and forced adulthood. This work, along with Let’s eat cake and Portrait of a young Turkish girl, examine child marriages.
The inspiration for this project came from my ongoing Mommy? series, particularly Mommy, can a baby have a baby? a question asked me by my daughter.
Happy Brideday marks the evolution of the fuse bead pieces from wall-based works to freestanding sculptures.
2024, Fuse beads, safety pins, bridal veil, sack filled with soil and diapers, 60 x 100 x 70 cm
With a title meant to evoke the male gaze in art history, Portrait of a young Turkish girl incorporates the evil-eyes seen in The Screams and reflects the vulnerabilities faced by women and girls. We must always be on the lookout. Femicide remains a persistent global issue.
2024, fuse beads and fishing line, 70 x 30 x 30 cm
2024, ütü ile yapışan boncuklar ve olta ipi, 70 x 30 x 30 cm
Let’s Eat Cake is a sculpture depicting a birthday/wedding cake of sorts, crafted entirely from fuse beads. Created for the fictional celebration referenced by the Happy Brideday banner.
The title, a bow to Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake,” draws attention to the disconnect between our daily concerns and the harsh realities of life for many women and girls.
Each tier of the cake is adorned with pastel patterns inspired by the handwriting exercises my daughter is currently practicing in school as she learns to write. At the top of the cake, the design echoes the backdrop of Mommy, Can a Baby Have a Baby?, featuring a pacifier intertwined with a diamond engagement ring — a layered (Ahem.) commentary.
2024, glow in the dark fuse beads, 54.5 × 39.5 cm (text), 26 × 23 xm (moon), 23 × 23 cm (star)
(view in the dark)
2024, Single channel video, 1 min 15 seec.
2024, fuse beads, 45 x 45 cm
2024, fuse beads, 58 x 87cm
2023, Digital C-Print, 80 x 118 cm
2023, Digital C-Print, 90 x 125 cm
