We craft and tell stories because we’ve stood on the uncertain edge between the waking world and our imagination, between enchantment and fear. And we remember other stories that help us build our own stories, scraps of lumber and fragments of narrative we gather together to make stories for ourselves.

A Guide Across Distant Seas

Aikaterini Gegisian, A Small Guide to the Invisible Seas (The Sea of Passions, 6) 2015, Collage on paper, 27.8 x 42.5 cm, Courtesy of the artist & Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki

An interview with Aikaterini Gegisian by Defne Cizakca Part 2 of 2 Our second meeting took place in the summer. We met in Istanbul, at a bustling café in the neighbourhood of Nişantaşı. Aikaterini had…Continue Reading

A Guide Across Distant Seas

“My appropriation of the term ‘Ottoman woman’ is an attempt to address a collective female body that has hardly ever been visible.” (Aikaterini Gegisian, Self-Portrait as an Ottoman Woman, Variation 2, 2012-2016 75 archival postcards 150 cm x 140 cm, Courtesy of the artist & Kalfayan Galleries, Athens-Thessaloniki)

An interview with Aikaterini Gegisian by Defne Cizakca Part 1 of 2 I met Aikaterini at wintertime, in a small amphitheatre at University College London where we were attending a masterclass on Ottoman Cosmopolitanism. In…Continue Reading

Only the Keeper Sees

I discovered the woods by our house just as the year was turning.
I’d seen them before, of course. In any stroll along the pavement past the art school towards the conference center, looking across the brackish water of the reservoir, the woods were obvious enough. And I knew, in a vaguely academic way, that people sometimes went for walks in those same woods.

The Darkest Night of the Year

With the longest, darkest night of the year upon us, we wish you the joy of it. There’s a reason, I think, that so many cultures celebrate these nights—why such a cold, dark time is full of lights and laughter and merriment.