Leyla Gediz, 1974

After graduating from the Austrian High School in Istanbul, Leyla Gediz went to London to study art at Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Slade School of Fine Art, later completing her master’s degree at Goldsmiths University. Viewing art less as a means of expressing emotions than as a way of releasing herself from them, Gediz produces works shaped by her personal life story. Her paintings are distinguished by their spiritual compositions and the melancholy they carry. The restricted color palette that has evolved over the years often includes tones of black, white, grey, light blue, and pink, which relate to the nostalgic and emotional weight of the subjects she addresses. Treating painting and installation as a complementary part of a whole, the artist constructs her works both as individual pieces and as fragments of an ongoing narrative, one centered on curiosity and continuity.

“Interrogation Room” constructs relationships between figures and objects through layers that both separate and connect them. The female figure at the center of the composition, taking a selfie with an iPhone, links the work to the tradition of self-portraiture. The interrogation lamp referenced in the title introduces an authoritarian atmosphere, functioning as an element that both reveals the figure and places her within a space of questioning. In this context, the act of taking a selfie opens multiple interpretations: it may suggest bearing witness or affirming one’s presence, but it may also imply documenting one’s own interrogation or engaging in self-examination.