Sevil Tunaboylu’s Remainder (2024) derives both from personal history and collective mythology. Moving fluidly between media, the work begins with her grandparents’ migration from Skopje to Istanbul, chronicling a symbolic history of flight, migration, persistence and loss.
Through this archaeological excavation of her family archive, past belongings and heirlooms, Tunaboylu employs and re-casts the carpentry tools of her father and grandfather, lending the work a tactile quality. The paintings further a mythical, yet deeply lived-in, approach to family history. For instance, Desolate Reunion (2024) shows a partial hand holding up a historical snapshot from her father’s archives, taken in front of the iconic Central Post Office in Skopje. Other features in her work, such as crumpled iron bars, nod to the looming reality of non-stop construction in Türkiye and its interruption of dwelling habits and urban landscapes. A series of lizard sculptures become animalistic guides to a shifting terrain, their severed tails set to regrow. Throughout the installation, references to construction processes through her family’s intergenerational workshop tools and measuring instruments speak to a perpetual project of building space, legacy and homeland.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Sevil Tunaboylu (b. 1982, Istanbul) forges a realm of expression spanning from painting to sculpture in order to examine her subjects, continuously repositioning them in shifting contexts. Her practice centres on exercises exploring the coexistence of encountered objects, alongside portraits that testify to what remains outside the frame. As a member of the feminist collective Alaca Heyheyler, she organises exhibitions and workshops while producing artist’s publications. Tunaboylu’s solo exhibitions include Apprentice, 400&118, Istanbul (2023) and Embarked on an Everlasting Return, Depo, Istanbul (2020). Her group exhibitions include the Sharjah Biennial 16 (2025); Painting Today, Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts, Istanbul (2024); The Women’s Atlas, Depo, Istanbul (2024).
EXHIBITED WORKS
Sevil Tunaboylu (b. 1982)
Remainder, 2024
Oil on canvas, clay, 3D print, wood, found objects
Variable dimensions
All works commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and Bao Foundation
Courtesy of the artist
