Deniz Üster (Turkey) narrates myths from an unknown future, invoking vaguely familiar rituals from Anatolian folklore, intertwined with Middle Asian Shamanism and Islamic mythology. She then remoulds these in the post-industrial landscape of Glasgow, where kinetics permeate into her sculptures and films with an aesthetic that is at once Victorian and sci-fi. Nostalgia, and an altered idea of the futuristic coexist in Deniz’s works, whereas she does not linger on the ‘present’. On the other hand ‘now’ is the only moment that could be conceived in her films, leaving ‘before’ and ‘after’ as indefinite blanks waiting to be filled by the participant. The characters in her films are always undressed from their humanity, and lack emotions. Performing repetitive actions to achieve transmutation through an ‘aberrant’ alchemy, Deniz playfully shuffles the value systems and functions we place on objects and situations.

Born in Turkey in 1981, Deniz has an undergraduate degree in Painting and Drawing from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, an her MA in Visual Arts from Sabanci University, Istanbul and an MFA from The Glasgow School of Art. She was selected to represent Turkey for the Henkel Art Award, and nominated and shortlisted for the Sovereign European Art Prize. Her solo exhibitions in 2011 included Invited and Volunteered, Rampa, Istanbul and Encrypting Signs on the Fabric of a Rhizome, (a collaborative work with Tom Harrup), La Giarina Gallery, Verona.

As part of A.i.R. Dubai, Deniz was commissioned to produce a site-specific work in Al Bastakiya as well as the Madinat Arena for Art Dubai Projects.

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Please note all artist-in-residence biographies are accurate at the time of their residency. For up-to-date bios please visit the artist’s website.