21 MAR until 25 APR 2025

Soy Capitán is pleased to present Silent Strangers, Yeşim Akdeniz’ first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Yeşim Akdeniz’s practice is infused with symbolic narratives that reflect cultural production, negotiation, and appropriation while exploring the movement of forms, materials, and labor, examining the intersections between craft and industrial production. Central to her work is a distinct visual language of symbolism, through which she weaves personal and cultural references, offering layered interpretations of history, identity, and collective memory.

At the heart of the exhibition is New Faces in Town, a series of iron-welded lamps created in collaboration with a craftsperson in Istanbul. These sculptural lamp-objects incorporate factory-made shoes and a hand-welded iron framework, with a suitcase serving as their base. By fusing elements from both artisanal and industrial processes, these works evoke movement and displacement—both physically and as a metaphor for shifting economies of labor and production.

Also featured is the Brown and White Cipher series, which explores material contrasts and tactile tensions. As the titles suggest, these works reference skin tones, with silicone surfaces that resemble the texture of human flesh. Embedded within the silicone are metal components—some salvaged from demolished buildings, others sourced from construction materials such as saw blades and polishing discs. The interplay of these elements creates a palpable sense of tension, underscoring the fragility and resilience of bodies, histories, and labor.

Yeşim’s ongoing series, Self-Portrait as an Orientalist Carpet, consists of large-scale textile works resembling traditional Anatolian blankets. Once passed down through generations, this craft has been increasingly displaced by industrial production. The series critically examines Orientalism, questioning how Eastern identities have been framed, exoticized, and commodified. By merging self-representation with decorative motifs, these works challenge fixed notions of culture, identity, and authenticity, blurring the boundaries between portraiture and textile. In doing so, they explore how identities are woven—both literally and metaphorically—into cultural and historical narratives.

Additionally, the exhibition presents new works from Yeşim’s ongoing series TBA. These pieces combine painted surfaces with silicone and metal elements, continuing her engagement with hybrid materialities. The assemblage of handmade and industrially produced components reflects her ongoing exploration of food as a metaphor for identity and exoticism, probing how cultural perceptions are shaped through consumption and representation.

Throughout Silent Strangers, Yeşim integrates mass-produced yet unbranded objects — buckles, car upholstery, and other industrial remnants — materials that move through supply chains largely unnoticed. Much like the workers who handle them, these objects traverse industries and geographies, subtly influencing cultures without acknowledgment or authorship. Through the interplay of the handcrafted and the manufactured, the visible and the unseen, Silent Strangers examines how histories of migration, labor, and power are embedded in everyday materials, revealing the silent forces that shape our interconnected world.

Yeşim Akdeniz (b. 1978, Izmir) graduated from Art Academy Düsseldorf in 2002. She participated in the De Ateliers residency program in Amsterdam in 2002 until 2004 and received the Kunstverein Bonn/Peter Mertes Stipendium in 2005.

Her work has been exhibited in many institutions including Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Kunstverein Frankfurt, MAK Museum Vienna, Sammlung Philara in Düsseldorf, Kunstverein Bielefeld and Kunsthal Mechelen in Belgium.

The artist currently lives and works between Brussels and Düsseldorf.