Simge Güçlü’s work explores print as an ‘action relic’: a series of motions, decisions, and events that culminate in the recording of the moment of contact between substrate, ink, and matrix, serving as a physical trace of material and spatial transformation. Conceptually and materially entrenched in print, her practice emerges from experimental and traditional printmaking techniques: the layered nature of print, the textures of ink, the unique characteristics of different matrices, and the materiality of papers. The performance of printmaking exists as fragments within her work, visible through layers, tears, interruptions, rhythm, and repetition, drawing attention to the flow state of printmaking as a medium rooted in labour and transformation, a disappearing act of creation, only existing in its remnants.

Through the ingenuity of ‘making’—including printmaking, papermaking, and bookmaking—she explores spiritual, social, and cultural care practices, the invisible ties of shared memories and loss, and thresholds of self. The phantom-like nature of printmaking and its fragmentary qualities dimensionally translates the inherent temporality, idiosyncrasies, and drama of human-made spaces into abstractions that peel back the layers of narratives. These patterns, stemming from cultural legacies, and modern identities, assemble visually and conceptually expansive pieces, serving as a channel to ponder personal and collective histories, gender, and relationships. The embodied time of the creative process and spatial quality raises questions of what, in particular, does it mean to look at a past moment of creation and memory, and what does it say about the reality or truth that can be excavated from it?