Gözde İlkin, Those Who Remember Their Births, 2026 © Gözde İlkin
This autumn, Tate St Ives presents Those Who Remember Their Births, a new site-specific commission by Turkish artist Gözde İlkin. Developed during two residencies in St Ives in 2026, the installation brings together sculpture, painting and embroidery to explore the relationships between landscape, memory and women’s lived experiences.
During her time in St Ives, İlkin became interested in the coastline as a living archive, observing how waves, wind and tides continually reshape the landscape and how geological and human histories become intertwined. These encounters informed the development of Those Who Remember Their Births, which explores how memory can be carried through landscapes, textiles, everyday objects and shared histories.
Inspired by the shifting movements of the sea, İlkin transforms vintage family bedsheets with batik and wire to create flowing, wave-like sculptural forms adorned with painted and embroidered details and suspended within the gallery space. Drawing on archival photographs of women whose contributions to fishing, mining and textile production helped shape the town’s social and industrial histories, the installationweaves these local histories together with motifs inspired by plants, stones and the coastline. Folded and layered fabrics echo the movement of water while becoming canvases for memory and storytelling, creating an environment in which personal and collective histories converge.
Throughout her multidisciplinary practice, İlkin works with found domestic textiles including bedsheets, tablecloths and curtains that carry traces of everyday life. Rather than treating these fabrics simply as artistic materials, she considers them repositories of memory, capable of preserving experiences and stories that can be absent from written histories. In her work she transforms familiar objects to explore themes of care, labour, belonging and coexistence, as well as the ways histories are carried between generations.
Community collaboration is an important part of Those Who Remember Their Births. İlkin works alongside St Ives-based textile artist Jo McIntosh and local participants in a workshop exploring family histories, local knowledge and collective memory. Together, they create embroidered textile coverings for stones gathered from the surrounding shoreline. These works form part of the installation, reflecting İlkin’s interest in creating space for multiple voices and developing artworks through dialogue and shared experience.
This installation is part of the fifth collaborative iteration of the Artist Residency and Commissions Programme between Tate St Ives and SAHA, which to date has supported artists Burçak Bingöl, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Cansu Çakar and Ahmet Doğu İpek.
Gözde İlkin’s residency and installation continue a programme designed to foster artistic exchange and research between St Ives and Türkiye.
Those Who Remember Their Births is commissioned by Tate St Ives, curated by Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St Ives with Assistant Curator Dara McElligott. Supported by SAHA.
Local collaborations led by Georgina Kennedy, Curator, Communities and Cassie Penn, Assistant Curator, Communities.
Collaborator: Jo McIntosh.
Community Contributors: Valerie Canavan, Ebby Rae Cotterill, Freya Cotterill-Prisk, Denise Morris, Gamze Polat, and Julie Tesseyman.
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Listings information
Gözde İlkin: Those Who Remember Their Births
10 October 2026 - 17 January 2027
Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St Ives TR26 1TG
Open daily 10.00–17:20; Winter opening hours (from 1 November) Tuesday to Sunday 10.00–16.20
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About Gözde İlkin
Born in 1981 in Kütahya, Türkiye, İlkin completed her undergraduate degree in Painting at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2004 and her graduate degree in Painting at Marmara University Fine Arts in 2012. She lives and works in Istanbul.
Select solo exhibitions include ‘Tide’, artSümer Gallery, Istanbul (2026); ‘Invisible Bonds, Companion Roots’ at PARIS-B, Paris (2023); ‘The Eye of the Earth, The Mouth of the Ground’ at Gypsum Gallery, Maadi, Cairo (2022); ‘Entrusted Ground’ at .art Sümer Gallery, Istanbul (2022); and ‘MAC VAL Garden: As the roots spoke, the cracks deepen’, as part of the exhibition ‘Persona grata?’ at MAC/VAL Museum, Paris (2019). İlkin has participated in numerous international group exhibitions and artist residencies. Between 2006 and 2013, together with Gülçin Aksoy and Yasemin Nur, she ran the artists’ initiative Atıl Kunst.
About SAHA:
SAHA was founded in 2011 to support artists, curators, and writers working in visual arts from Türkiye, aiming to improve their production and development environments and enhance their interactions with international art institutions and networks. As a non-profit organisation, SAHA offers its support through a participatory approach in governance and fundraising with its members, institutional supporters, project partners, and consultants.
SAHA collaborates with non-profit organisations to realise exhibitions, publications, projects, and public programs, acting as a facilitator and providing grants where necessary. It establishes partnerships with residency and research programs to promote cross-cultural dialogue and foster the professional development of artists and curators from Türkiye. Additionally, it expands the creative environment of artists, curators, and writers invited to the SAHA Studio and Curatorial Program in Istanbul and supports independent initiatives across Türkiye to sustain their public programs.
Since 2011, SAHA has supported over 650 artists, curators, writers, and art initiatives for their projects in over 314 museums, biennials, non-profit art institutions, and organisations in 52 countries.
About Tate St Ives:
Opened in 1993 and expanded in 2017, Tate St Ives explores the area’s unique role in the story of modern art, provides a platform for cutting-edge contemporary artists from around the world, and runs a programme of events and projects developed for and with the town of St Ives. It also manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden and is the only Tate gallery to have a dedicated Artist Residency programme. Tate St Ives was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018, the UK’s most prestigious museum award. Find out more at tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives
Related Publications:
Gözde İlkin: Those Who Remember Their Births
Published Oct 2026
Paperback £5
Related Events
Artist talk: Gözde İkin
Saturday 10 October, 11.00-12.00, free with admission.
For public enquiries please visit tate.org.uk/stives call +44(0)1736 796226, or email visiting.stives@tate.org.uk