Artist statement: I attended schools where teachers ceaselessly mis-pronounced my name. Unable to roll their Rs, it was much easier to enunciate the proper way. Often the conversation that ensued when people asked me what my name was became so laborious that it left them wishing they never asked in the first place. In time, I’d stop trying to explain. Adopting pseudonyms that fit the vernacular of whatever context I was in. Eastern, Errr-han, western, ER-han. You are Turkish or you are Australian. You are western or you are eastern – bipartisan views denying any right to nuance or multiplicity. They coax us into conformity. Sol yanim explores the complexities of cross-cultural identities and existence beyond singular frameworks of belonging through a series of collaborative portraits, still lifes, landscapes, archival images and text.