Gülşah Mursaloğlu Discusses Material Research and Upcoming Istanbul Solo Show

Gülşah Mursaloğlu, an artist with a background in sociology and political science, transitioned to art by earning an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago after initial post-baccalaureate studies. Her practice investigates materiality and temporalities, focusing on human and non-human connections in nature through hands-on experimentation and artistic research. In 2024, she created a video project titled A Chanting Egg Near the Dent, exploring eggshells as a material motif. From 2019 to 2021, she developed Merging Fields, Splitting Ends, a long-term project on potatoes inspired by a research group for the Istanbul Biennial organized by the arts and ecology collective birbuçuk, collaborating with biotechnology student Konrad Czech in Berlin to produce bioplastic from potato starch. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she initiated Devouring the Earth, in Perishable Quantities (2020–), examining geophagy and substances like arsenic that enter the body, sparked by her mother's use of clay for immunity. Mursaloğlu's research draws on diverse sources, including physics writings by Carlo Rovelli, and is non-linear in approach. She will present a solo exhibition at Sanatorium in Istanbul in December, featuring the egg video work and new investigations into sleep. This interview originally appeared in Canvas 115: On the Wild Side.