Duygu Kahraman is a Turkish ceramist. She is the associate dean of the Faculty of Art at Anadolu University and a ceramics professor. Her works have been exhibited in Slovakia, Republic of Korea, Germany, and other countries. She has  participated in many seminars. She has held 7 solo exhibitions and joined 110 group exhibitions.

Waiting Spring

Fairy Tale

Kahraman’s creations, Fairy Tale and Waiting Spring, are like pottery fables warmed by the Anatolian sun. They blend the grandeur of the plateau mountains and the philosophy of the seasons. Fairy Tale uses mountain contours to show a child’s heart. Waiting Spring outlines nature’s cycle of dormancy and blossoming. Both works tell the story of seeking hope in the earth’s folds through hand-formed textures and diverse glaze colors.

Kahraman knows the “earth motif” of Turkish ceramics. From Hittite pottery to Seljuk tiles, she turns cultural codes into modern ceramic sculpture. Fairy Tale has a mountain-like framework. After firing, it has a gradient texture like a plateau sunset. The fiery glaze cracks and the quiet clay color show a child’s heart in reality. Waiting Spring uses a curled clay form to show winter dormancy. Multiple layers of milky white glaze are applied. After high-temperature kiln changes, a mottled pattern like melting snow is formed. The unglazed clay particles at the bottom keep the original texture of Anatolian soil, as if waiting for the first spring breeze.

The most touching part of the two works is the translation of the “texture of time” into clay. Fairy Tale uses the traditional Turkish ceramic technique of “coil building,” but it has a modern sculpture’s weightlessness. It shows a child’s heart growing upwards under reality’s pressure. Waiting Spring breaks the symmetry of traditional ceramic sculpture. The slightly convex arc on one side corresponds to seeds pushing through the soil. The hollow structure inside produces a faint resonance when lightly tapped, like the whisper of spring sprouts emerging from deep within the earth. Kahraman allows the clay to acquire the characteristics of time in the fire. The glaze flow in Fairy Tale is like the geological changes of mountains over hundreds of millions of years. The crackle texture in Waiting Spring records the subtle transition from winter to spring. Traditional and modern skills are transformed into annotations of the natural order here.

This kind of dual expression of nature and the inner self gives viewers deep enlightenment. Fairy Tale uses the grandeur of mountains to embrace the passionate yet frustrated heart of a child. Waiting Spring uses the dormancy of the clay to metaphorize the trust of life in the order of time. Kahraman proves with clay and fire that tradition is not a solidified specimen. It nurtures new life while accepting snow and wind. She integrates the rugged texture of Hittite pottery with the spatial concept of contemporary installation art. The two works form a dialogue of time in the exhibition hall. Just as the Turkish proverb says, “Spring never fails the seeds under the frozen soil.” The artist reveals the essence of life in the contour of the mountains and the texture of melting snow in the clay. Only by guarding the inner fervor in the folds of reality like Fairy Tale and trusting the power of time in dormancy like Waiting Spring, can hope find the courage to break through in the cracks of the soil. The two works, forged in fire, reveal a timeless truth: they are both clay shaped by time and storytellers carrying fairy tales. Spring is always waiting in the warmth of the clay.