Seda Hepsev

Quartz Studio | Turin, Italy

SAHA supports Seda Hepsev's first solo exhibition in Italy. Curated by Caterina Fondelli, the exhibition takes place at Quartz Studio on 12 September – 14 October 2023.

Seda Hepsev has conceived a site-specific project that draws on the revolutionary, unconventional approach to femininity developed by the writer Hilda Doolittle (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S., 1886). She developed her approach throughout her career and especially in the verses of her 1915 poem “The Garden.” Seda seeks to create a new context, challenging and re-reading the boundaries of power structures through an intelligent interpretation and a playfulness applied both to her practice and the space. The process of proceeding by layers, which was already at the foundation of Hepsev’s poetics, both conceptually and practically, mirrors the spare, direct imagery of Doolittle’s writing. The works act as open-ended stories, where universal human stages are recounted in a flowing, falling, collapsing, almost flying way like that which Hilda tied to Greek myths in her compositions. The dichotomous presence of heat and wind, signifying repression and a path to relief and change, respectively, are expressed in these artworks.

Seda Hepsev (Istanbul, 1978) lives and works in Zürich. Her artistic practice comprises painting, embroidery and installations that originate from drawings.

She explores the politics and potential of women's passion, space and subjectivity. Body parts, beasts, distorted characters, and traditional motifs often appear in her work, which seems very fragile, incomplete, and multi-layered. She uses craft methods to search for potential spaces for the female body, because "women have the possibility to create their own spaces, their own environment." Layered textile paintings, hanging threads or wires suggest narratives where fact and fiction are uncertain, and where protagonists remain mysterious and motives unclear. Recent shows include Swiss Art Awards (nominated) Messe Basel 2022, Zürich Art Grants (awarded) Helmhaus 2022, Grosse Regionale, Alte Fabrik Rapperswil 2021, Mediality & Materiality, Förderverein Aktuelle Kunst, Münster, 2021.

About Quartz Studio

Quartz Studio is a contemporary art space founded in Turin in 2014.The name Quartz suggests a wunderkammer, a cabinet de curiosité in which early European collectors displayed rare items, such as the mineral quartz, in which the word “art” is nestled. Quartz Studio gives mid-career artists, particularly those born in the 1970s, a place of artistic freedom that allows for the “solo” implementation of site-specific projects not possible in other settings.