Artist statement

N.L.Ş creates sculptural installations that reinterpret the still life as a contemporary code for the pain of identity’s contradictions—the tension between plurality and the singular perceptions imposed upon us. Drawing from their perspective as a Turkish-German queer person, their work explores the complexities of belonging, legibility, and resistance. Built around contrasts—fragility and structure, softness and rigidity, the familiar and the unsettling—their installations are often anchored by frameworks and held in tension by materials drawn from daily life. The tone of the work balances a romantic, nostalgic sensibility with a certain strictness—like tenderness held within a frame. These combinations are a humorous invitation for unease. N.L.Ş’s arrangements exist on the verge of collapse, mirroring the instability of identity and the delicate balance of existence itself.