Defne Aksoy (b. 1999) is a multidisciplinary artist from İzmir, Turkey. Through metalwork, installation, poetry, and video, she explores questions of selfhood, consciousness, and interconnectedness—between living organisms, inert matter, and larger systems. Defne received her BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2023. Her first public installation, Street Machine, was installed in Baltimore City as part of Baltimore DOT’s Vision Zero Initiative. She has co-devised and performed in the experimental play Small Wins with the AYTWIT Collective. She is currently living and working in Baltimore, Maryland.
I am interested in the intricate systems that govern the body and the universe—the forces that order all of us, yet those we are habitually imperceptive to.
When I weld, I think about iron's slow pull towards rust, breathing in oxygen as I do. I think about the iron in my blood, moving oxygen through my body. I think about our fleeting grasp on reality, and how attached we are to the maintenance of our fixed “truth” that doesn’t accommodate the inherent complexity of the world. These conditions can produce violence in humans. Materials, on the other hand, don't cling to their identity. They surrender to transformation. The steel is not attached to its self. Under heat and pressure, it bends, coils, and blisters. There is beauty in giving up your own properties to become another truth.
I make art to embrace these entanglements. My sculptures are usually in the middle of a transformative process, decaying or flourishing, as change remains constant. With my work, I aim to spark a sense of wonder and curiosity, and challenge Western notions of power, individuality, and hierarchy; proposing transformation, interdependence, and instability as generative conditions rather than threats to order.