Kıymet Daştan

Kıymet Daştan problematizes the materiality of material and time by experimenting with form and conceptual thought, examining traditions, memory and representations of values. 

 She graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Sculpture in 2008 and received her Master's degree in Design from Domus Academy in Milan in 2014. In 2019, she completed the one-year Home Workspace program of the Ashkal Alwan Plastic Arts Association in Beirut, followed by her second master's degree at MSGSU Sculpture Department in 2021. 

 Daştan has held three solo exhibitions, two in Istanbul, one in France. Participated in many group exhibitions in galleries and public spaces, and participated in artist residencies and symposiums. She has won many awards, including the First Prize in the Sabancı Art Awards Sculpture Department (2008) and the First Prize in the JTR Jewelry Design Competition (2013). She participated in the exhibitions "Crystal Clear" at Pera Museum (2020) and "Return Of The Sun" at Beirut Art Center (2022).

Daştan continues her artistic work independently in her studio in Istanbul.

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

Amid various crises ranging from economic to ecological, from human-made to so-called natural disasters, global wars, and pandemics, what are we truly expressing or wishing for when we tell someone to "take care of yourself"? Taking this multifaceted phrase as a reference, how can we reveal and disrupt the marks left by social inequalities and polarizations that shape contemporary societies on spaces and objects connected to everyday and collective memory? In other words, could the systemic precarity affecting increasingly larger populations due to capitalism's crisis cycles also create grounds for new forms of connection and belonging?

At SAHA Studio, I developed an ongoing series based on my research into the shrinking sense of time between catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, and the return to normal life, as similar events recur over the years, exploring how much time it takes for individuals to resume their daily lives while also examining the transience of objects (real flowers, flags left hung out, barricades, road closure tapes, etc.) left behind to commemorate these events.

Concurrently attempting to layer the experience of bearing witness to the massacres in the Middle East from a distance through material processes conjured up the significance of these themes and how such events, metaphorically "heat up" the atmosphere, ruling out all shared future scenarios. As part of the Take Care of Yourself series developed throughout this term, I associated the heating of materials with collective memory and forms of language.

During my time at İMÇ, I created a flag that would float in the empty space where celebratory banners were sometimes hung, overlooking the Süleymaniye Mosque from the inner courtyard where we often took our chairs to sit. The flag features the phrase "KENDİNE İYİ BAK" (TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF) sequentially as a pattern. The changing color of certain letters on the flag according to the temperature reveals the phrase "KENDİ KENDİNE" (ON YOUR OWN), emphasizing how this commonly used phrase in daily life loses its meaning and imposing the responsibility onto the other person.

A second work I produced during this period references events held by cultural and art institutions, which often cater to a small, privileged segment of society. While these gatherings create the fertile setting for important social observations and discourses, they also transform the web of political and economic relationships we call the artworld into a seemingly mild environment where everyone appears to be “good”—feeling good, looking good. But is it truly normal to feel at peace, guilt-free, at a lunch table arranged within this context?

This question led to the creation of Hot Service (Sıcak Servis), a set of table napkins. Two corners of each napkin are embroidered with text, while the other corners feature texts printed with heat-sensitive ink that becomes legible when touched, reacting to our body temperature. Through its performative nature, this work reflects on the dilemmas of social positions, everyday language, and evolving communication channels amid deepening social inequalities.

The third work I completed at SAHA Studio features the images of optical disks that transform into stones in the Oblivion Stones series produced in Beirut and turns them into a screen saver. Using one of the moving images that are now recognized as nostalgic due to the rapid change in digital media technologies, but which have remained in the memories of those who have experienced the old technologies, this work alludes to what remains in the depths of our subconscious, which can never be completely suppressed or erased, through the periodical motion of appearing and disappearing, as if filling a void.