About me
I am an artist, illustrator and a tattooer from Istanbul, Turkey. I studied fine arts in highschool and university. I have completed Pre-License Program on Stage Design/Costume and Bachelor of Arts Degree on Painting Department at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.
During my studies I started collaborating with local culture and art magazines, and also with subculture events, musicians, artists, LGBTQ+ and Feminist groups in Turkey. I am still an active artist in the subculture of Istanbul. Also in Finland, I am working on similar projects at the moment.
My artwork is mainly about belongingness,
being a woman in different environments and the feeling of an outsider in different circumstances. I have been in many group exhibitions and also my first solo exhibition in Paris in 2016, named “Belonging/NotBelonging”. Understanding the feeling of belonging was a journey and I found myself thinking that not belonging can be a desirable state and non-belonging, being an outsider can be also positively liberating, too.
Belongingness is a subject of my artwork traces back to my teenage years. We were living in Istanbul but my ID card was showing that I am from the south of Turkey. I was an Istanbuler when I went back to the place I was born. I always had this imbalance of belonging. My grandmother was coming from a Bulgarian migrant family and I was questioning her about how she felt about the subject a lot too. Not feeling belonged has became my main concern long time ago. I am still bothered about this subject and planing to express more of it in my art.