SHATTERED

Harvard Art Museums

Seven glass birds from my Shattered series are featured in Gardens, an installation curated by Dr. Aysin Yoltar-Yildirim at the Harvard Art Museums, on view in the Art of Islamic Lands gallery. My contemporary glass sculptures are shown alongside an 18th-century Persian carpet and South Asian paintings, creating a dialogue between historical craftsmanship and contemporary expression.

Shattered was inspired by the 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria. The gold-filled cracks on the birds—echoing the kintsugi tradition—speak to fragility, resilience, and the transformative power of repair. For me, these gilded seams symbolize both the wounds we carry and the strength found in healing.

In Islamic tradition, gardens were not only cultivated and enjoyed in everyday life, but were also associated with paradise, a place with beautiful gardens, trees, rivers, and fragrant flowers. Framed within this context, my multicolored glass swallows reimagine the sensory beauty of these sacred landscapes, offering a poetic reflection on migration, memory, and rebirth.

The inclusion of Shattered in this installation marks a meaningful moment in my practice, connecting my work to centuries of artistic traditions across the Islamic world and South Asia, and inviting viewers to consider how contemporary art can illuminate—and be illuminated by—historic forms.