.artSümer is proud to present Deniz Üster’s second solo exhibition at the gallery titled Ignition and Confluence: The River of Us between September 13 – October 17, 2025.
The exhibition presents a new body of work investigating the origins of life and the evolution of collective survival through a speculative, research-driven lens.
Deniz Üster’s practice is distinguished by its deep grounding in geological, scientific, and anthropological research. Through a speculative framework that utilises science fiction as a primary methodology, Üster probes complex ethical dilemmas concerning justice, both within and beyond the confines of terrestrial life. The ambivalence stirred within the audience by these ethical quandaries reveals the performative and participatory nature of her pieces.
In this exhibition, Üster proposes a vision of unity that transcends conventional multispecies approaches, advocating for a pluralism that encompasses not only microorganisms but all elemental forces, from water to minerals. These pluralistic narratives imagine fictional shifts in the natural order as a foundation for conceiving alternative societal structures and economic models.
The exhibition’s title, Ignition and Confluence: The River of Us, serves as a central metaphor for exploring theories on the emergence of life and the evolution of collectivity. "Ignition" represents the initial spark—whether archaic abiogenesis or neoteric de-extinction—while "Confluence" symbolises the sustaining force of collective action, akin to two rivers merging to form a single, more powerful entity.
The sculptures on view challenge prevailing notions of evolution, such as "survival of the fittest." Drawing on phenomena from eusociality to biological colonies, from slime moulds to bacterial altruism, Üster posits that self-sacrifice and cooperation, rather than individual competition, have been fundamental to the continuity of species during a state of deprivation. In these ethically layered encounters, the artist visualises an alternative societal model in which humanity speculatively adapts from biologically less complex yet socially more advanced life forms.
Through her sculptures and narrative installations, Üster deliberately manipulates scale to disrupt conventional hierarchies between the human figures and the sculpted life forms. This formal strategy invites a critical reassessment of humanity’s position within the vast, interconnected web of existence.
Central to the exhibition is a series of drawings that explore multiple narratives of genesis, laying the scientific and speculative groundwork for life's emergence. These works address a range of pivotal subjects, from the microscopic Zircon crystal—the oldest known mineral formed on Earth—to fundamental processes such as the formation of the cell membrane; the scientific puzzle of homochirality; the clay hypothesis of molecular origins; and the overarching theory of abiogenesis.
By collapsing the vast scales of time and biology, Üster creates a compelling synthesis, urging a paradigm shift from a narrative of individual dominance to one of radical, systemic confluence. This body of work invites us to recognise our own existence as a single stream within this ancient, elemental, and ever-flowing river of being.
