Burcu Koleli

Menstrual Muses

My practice moves between soft sculpture, ceramics, artist books, interactive installations, paintings and digital platforms, often existing simultaneously as art, ecofeminist inquiry, storytelling, and advocacy. I’m interested in cyclical bodies, care, intimacy, and questioning the beliefs, taboos, stigmas, and systems of shame and silence that shape how we experience sexuality, relationships and body image.

Through fabric, embroidery, hand-built forms, writing, and participatory projects, I create spaces where people can sit, reflect, share stories, and connect with one another. I think a lot about softness and care as a way of building trust, accessibility, and collective conversation.

Alongside my studio practice, I’ve collaborate with nonprofits and organizations on campaigns translating complex social issues into accessible visual language. I approach art-making as an act of radical imagination, joy, and world-building.

Soft Sculpture
2026
Flowers, Soft Sculpture, Hand sown velvet fabric stuffed with poly filling, 
65"

This soft sculpture series draws inspiration from medicinal flowers historically used to support menstruating bodies through herbal care, ritual, and embodied knowledge passed across generations. Each flower is based on a real plant associated with menstrual health, reproductive care, or hormonal balance, transforming botanical forms into oversized, tactile sculptures that feel both playful and protective. Constructed from velvet and soft fabrics, the work explores softness as a political and emotional language.

Cyclical Vessels
2025
Hand-built ceramic vessels with underglaze and glaze

This ceramic series explores menstruation, cyclical bodies, and embodied knowledge through the form of the vessel.The works combine figures, moons, flowers, and bodily imagery to reflect emotional and physical cycles connected to menstruation.

Historically associated with containment, labor, and domesticity, the vessel becomes both a symbolic and bodily form within the work. Each piece functions as a narrative surface where stories of care, intimacy, vulnerability, and transformation unfold. 

Contained Bodies
2026
Acrylic on canvas

This painting explores the relationship between the body and the vessel as intertwined forms of containment, protection, and vulnerability. Two intertwined figures fold into the shape of a ceramic vase, merging bodily presence with an object historically associated with domesticity, labor, and preservation.

Using simplified forms and earthy red tones, the work reflects on intimacy, cyclical existence, and the emotional weight carried within the body. The composition draws from ancient vessel imagery and feminist reinterpretations of the body, transforming the vase into both a symbolic and physical space for rest, tension, care, and connection.

Held Together
2026
Watercolor and gouache on paper
11x14"

This painting reflects on the body as both an individual and collective site of vulnerability, connection, and support. Inspired by ancient vessel imagery and feminist visual language, the intertwined figures suggest emotional interdependence and communal care. By placing multiple bodies within a shared form, the work considers how solidarity can challenge isolation, shame, and silence surrounding bodily experiences.