School of Fine Art Sculpture & Environmental Art
Gwendolin Gülbike Kircali

I am connected to the world around me, and so is my art practice. The lived experiences of my friends, the community I’m part of, and my own experiences drive my creative work. Through this work, I reflect on the spaces we inhabit and consider how we shape the world around us and how it, in turn, shapes us. The diverse, intersectional lives we lead, alongside my personal experiences of facing sexism, homophobia, and ableism, inform the way I approach my projects.
I’m inspired by community-driven projects, collective access, and the tension between working in isolation and creating with and for others. My aim is to build spaces that invite participation, sharing, and reflection, offering people a chance to connect.
I create installations using everyday objects, which I transform or rebuild, playing with the associations we have with them. These constructions combine a variety of materials and techniques, including woodwork, casting, metalwork, motors, audio, and text to alter and reimagine objects.
I believe that the dynamics of how I work directly influence the outcomes of my practice. This means I deliberately choose the processes and environments I engage with to align with the community and context each project is made for. I exhibit my work intentionally in spaces that are either connected to or deliberately disconnected from themes and methods within the work, such as public spaces, libraries, community centres, or traditional exhibition venues.
My practice responds to what I see in the world, using art to reflect, react, and foster connection and dialogue. I’m eager to participate in projects involving environmental art, social justice, community collaboration, and engagement, and I’m always seeking new opportunities to connect with different spaces and people to create meaningful, accessible projects that reflect our shared interests and identities.

I Build a Graveyard in My Dreams
This installation features five gravestones, each uniquely hand-engraved or hand-painted with text. Every stone reflects different possibilities surrounding death and killing, while also contemplating alternative futures that could unfold. For me, the gravestones become a symbolic landscape where memory, loss, and hope coexist, prompting viewers to consider how we negotiate the tensions between endings and new beginnings.
I Build a Graveyard in My Dreams
Installation with five gravestones made of concrete with skirting board and metal bases.
2025

I Can Feel the World Out There
This work is inspired by the sensation of the window as a barrier, a membrane that separates me from the outside. When I’m tied to bed for long periods and my room begins to reflect my inner state, the window becomes my only link to the world out there. This installation features latex stretched into a window frame, set into a false wall and lit from behind. An air pump, built from accordion bellows and a linear actuator, opens and closes the vacuum-sealed space behind the latex, causing it to shift and move.
I Can Feel the World Out There
Latex, window frame, motorised air pump
84 x 113 cm
2025
Project Links
Dreaming in Stone and Soil
For the degree show, Ashley Stefano and I shared a space to present our works together. This collaboration allowed us to create a dialogue between our individual pieces, highlighting the connections in our approaches. By exhibiting side by side, we were able to explore themes that resonated across both bodies of work, enriching the viewer’s experience and offering more space. Sharing the same environment also encouraged us to reflect on how our practices intersect and influence one another.
Dreaming in Stone and Soil
A shared space by
Gwendolin Kircali and Ashley Stefano
2025