Doorstep Tales

Eşiktekiler

Statement

A lyrical series of wearable works in praise of the voices behind the silent image of those society chooses not to see.

Doorstep Tales is a series of lyrical works in praise of the emotions, dreams and hidden stories of those society ignores, alienates, marginalises and steps over: refugees, beggars, street children, sex workers, the mentally ill, the lost, the ones who never quite belonged — and every other unlucky soul left in a corner.

Designed as wearable technology in the form of jewellery — a symbol of beauty — the pieces invite the viewer to approach, touch and explore what is called ugly.

The series was made with my sisters: one, a jewellery designer, made the castings; the other, a fashion designer, made the sewing and lace; I designed the concepts and the electronics. Several of the characters come from my novel, and the whole series owes a lot to Kafka — insects, worthlessness, and the people whose voices we never hear, circling in a dead-end world.

Watch on Vimeo ↗

01 — Crown with bone-conduction speaker

The Hidden Dance of the Timid Millipede

Ürkek Kırkayağın Gizli Dansı

A crown with a bone-conduction speaker: no sound escapes, yet the wearer hears the dancing footsteps of a timid millipede inside their head.

The millipede dreams she is a forty-footed ballerina who makes her own music with her feet, swaying gracefully across the stage until the whole hall rises to applaud. Yet she is always afraid to come out, to make a sound. At midnight she wanders through hidden corners, trembling at the thought of ending, like all her friends, under a slipper brought down in disgust. If you approach with an open heart and listen closely, you can hear her dancing alone in the hidden corners.

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02 — Lace glove with flex sensor and speaker

Groan of the Spider in the Dowry Chest

Çeyiz Sandığındaki Örümceğin İniltisi

A lace glove with a flex sensor and a speaker that groans when the fingers move.

A spider born with the gift of knitting is shut inside a dowry chest and sentenced to make lace for life. She spins the lightest, most flexible, strongest thread in the world, weaving back and forth all day. Hoping to escape, she fills the chest with metres of lace, breaking record after record, until there is no room left to breathe — and she suffocates without a single fly in her web, without her lace ever being touched. That lost spider stepped out of countless lost stories and found a body in this glove; it aches for every lost tale, every forgotten woman and every unseen labour each time it is touched, and its groan arrives from another world.

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03 — Thermochromic bracelet

Warm Chitchat of the Shy Grasshopper

Utangaç Çekirgenin Sıcak Muhabbeti

A bracelet that looks plain until it is worn: body heat changes its colour and reveals a hidden grasshopper.

In the grasshoppers' world of devouring, destruction and invasive consumption — where pushiness, over-familiarity and even rudeness are celebrated — there is no room for introversion and timid kindness. This grasshopper cannot fight its shy nature; it withdraws from the race and hides from people. It opens up only to those who show warmth, and starts chatting once it is warm. It reveals its treasures only to those whose hearts and eyes are open.

Watch on Vimeo ↗

04 — Cast resin necklace with LED eyes

Fiery Eyes of the Angry Fly

Öfkeli Sineğin Ateşten Gözleri

A transparent cast-resin necklace holding a black fly whose eyes have been replaced with LEDs.

Coal-black from birth, the fly stands at the edge of the crowd, a silent observer. Wounded and ugly, it draws disgust wherever it appears. Used to being chased away, it hides in a corner and lets no one near; it has learned to drive others away first, to hurt before being hurt. Reborn to frighten, with fury burning in its eyes — a wounded wild animal in the corner, its heart so battered that it lets no one approach.

Exhibitions

Design Week Turkey, Istanbul, 2017
Artist 2017 — Utopia Exhibition, Istanbul Tüyap Art Fair
From Sketch to Pixel: Digital Art — Adana Kültür Yolu Festival, 2024