Le Chat d'Istanbul - Variations 2

The Cat of Istanbul - Variations 2 captures the inseparable relationship between Istanbul's ubiquitous street cats and the city's architecture. These felines inhabit every street not as strays but as integrated residents—neither wild nor domesticated, but something merged with the urban fabric itself. Through cubist geometry, I dissolve the distinction between organic feline form and angular architectural planes, using the same formal language to express both cat and city.
The sculpture pushes ceramic's structural limits with daring verticality—40cm height on a narrow 16cm base, with angular protrusions extending into space. Thin walls and precarious projections risk collapse during firing, mirroring the cats' own grace as they balance on ledges and navigate vertical surfaces throughout Istanbul. The wax patina with pigments over terracotta evokes the warmth of the city's aged stone and weathered brick.
Created in 2023 as part of the "Nature in the City" collection, this work translates travel observations into sculptural form, documenting moments where the boundary between natural and built environments becomes productively ambiguous.