Yaşam Şaşmazer, 1980

Yaşam Şaşmazer completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees in the Department of Sculpture at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Working with natural materials such as wood, clay, papier-mâché, fungi, moss, and tree roots, the artist explores human relationships with the self, other living beings, and nature through the themes of fragility, transformation, and coexistence. Moving between figurative and biomorphic forms, Şaşmazer makes questions of vulnerability and belonging visible through sculptural configurations that extend into space.

In her early works, the artist focuses on child figures that engage with social and sexual identities. Over time, these figures grow; dark shadows, transforming bodies, and forms of existence intertwined with nature become more prominent. Belonging to this period, “Taming the Darkness” brings together a human body crafted from wood and a monstrous figure drawn with charcoal on the wall. The wooden figure and its charcoal shadow coexist within the same space, like two inseparable beings. The work establishes both a physical and psychological connection between body and shadow, carrying the fragile balance between fear, confrontation, and transformation into space.