Curated by Zehra Begüm Kışla, “Gelgit” (Tide) approaches objects not merely as symbols, but as “actions.” In İlkin’s system, fabrics, roots, dunes, and stones are not simply “things” that stand there; they are processes of becoming.
Every surface in the exhibition folds and unfolds like the ebb and flow of the sea. This movement constructs a spatial narrative that reveals how bodies and spaces continually reshape one another through contact and friction.
At the heart of the exhibition lies the concept of the “dune,” which began to take shape during the artist’s 2021 residency at The Watermill Center in New York. For İlkin, the dune is a structure that shifts with the wind—fluid yet accumulative. In the exhibition, it appears as a metaphor for the porous boundaries between nature, body, and matter.
A Communal Process of Making
What makes İlkin’s practice distinctive is that production moves beyond a “singular” act and becomes a collective process unfolding between thread, fabric, hand, and space. The artist’s handwork merges with the memory of the thread, inscribing the rhythm of nature into the texture of fabric rather than canvas.
“Gelgit is not merely an exhibition to be viewed; it is an experience that allows one to feel how memory is stored between the layers of fabric and how every touch transforms matter.”
A Note from Apartment No: 26
To break the stagnant energy of winter, today is a perfect day to surrender to the fluid “tide” in Gözde İlkin’s fabrics. Walking along the wide sidewalks of Piyalepaşa, thinking about İlkin’s “dunes” and sensing art as a “layer of memory” could do wonders for your mind just before the new year.
Exhibition Title: Gelgit (Tide)
Artist: Gözde İlkin
Venue: .artSümer Gallery (Piyalepaşa, Istanbul)
Closing Date: 23 January 2026
