Yerine / In Lieu, 2021-2022
Series of handmade papers with embedded textile components (thread, tassels, strings, found fibres, printed paper, dye)

In Lieu features “documents”—letter-sized sheets of handmade paper embedded with marks that evoke traces of text. This series emerged in response to the 2015 Suruç and Ankara bombings in Turkey, which claimed the lives of many young civilians gathered in peaceful protest. These attacks signaled a sharp turn toward a securitarian state, culminating in Turkey’s 2015 State of Emergency, which granted the government unchecked authority to issue Kanun Hükmünde Kararnameler (KHKs)—emergency decrees that bypassed existing law and were often published overnight in the national gazette.

In this climate of uncertainty, In Lieu explores the instability of language—its power to create and destroy, clarify and obscure, impose order and unravel it. The traces embedded in these handmade “documents” reflect both the persistence of expression and the ways in which the “loss” of language can be simultaneously generative and destructive.

Related works: In Lieu 2020-2022