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Things that inspire me to create are hidden within the structures and systems of our natural world. I mimic graceful and systematic structures of nature by using microorganism to express my thoughts and ideas. To express connection to the natural world, I harmonize diverse microbial life in order to produce the continually evolving living works. I draw the attention to dependence on a balance of natural processes by showing natural transformations as an outcome of interactions and influences of microorganisms. All these processes can be viewed in my living-art works throughout their exhibition period.

My microbiology background influences my artworks. The studies I was involved in research labs were mainly focused on pathogen biology. We asked questions such as how they exist, interact with each other and impact the environment. Those simple life forms do not behave extremely different than more complex organisms like human beings. They are born, they mature and influence each other and die. Microbes are unique to demonstrate 'life' in a relatively short time period from birth to death. Microorganisms that I use in my works, which we silently share our mutual environment are isolated from soil, air or human body. Growth media -a food source- made of potato, corn or malt in Petri dish or tube are used as a base to create a living platform for the microbes I grow. I used different dimensioned tubes and Petri dishes in a systematic arrangement to imitate the structures of nature. In other words, I create a 'world' for the microorganisms and then let them live with their own rules.

In my recent works, people's mutual environments are isolated and presented with their portraits. Different microbes from each person showed the uniqueness of that person's personal history and environment. Microbial growth on each Petri dish changed from day to day, as does each person. When the microbes have covered the dish, the person's image on the bottom no longer can be seen and with this "death", there still is life somewhere else (the microbes). That work leads me to create self-portraits by using cluster cell dishes and microbes that were isolated from handful of soil taken from where I live. After isolating the microbes from the soil, I chose the ones that have different colors. I viewed every cell as a pixel in a photographic approach and an element to create the complex organism in evolution theory. In these works, I see how the microbes can affect and interact each other.

So, in my latter projects, I decided to use microorganisms to refer human behavior, culture and creation of different society. I re-created the world political map on a Petri dish with growth media. After tracing each continent on a Petri dish, excessive areas were removed to create each continent, and then different microorganisms were placed on each country. Growth of microorganisms are depended on food sources, the environment (light, temp and humidity) and their ability to compete with others. Based on inherent characteristics and the environmental conditions some microorganisms will be dominant and others will be less successful invaders. I chose more aggressive isolates for the developed countries to reflect the current political characteristics. Developing countries have been represented by less aggressive ones. USA has achieved its position of dominance in the world by trade and imposing its culture and values as well as by developing a powerful army. Thus, I placed the most aggressive isolate to represent the US. On the map, the aggressive microbes will grow faster and have larger territories, leaving smaller space to be colonized by others. It also will result with less resources/food being available for slow growers. Contamination also does occur on some parts of the map, which in a way reflects immigration or migration.

After the microbes create their territories based on the complex dynamics, and consume their entire environment, they will start to die because of the absence of the food and water resources in growth media. This represents the natural resources available. The entire work demonstrates human actions, form of power, political pressures, immigration, racialism and how superior countries place dominance on others and the cultural hegemony over the entire world. In addition to the political facts reflected by the interaction, the work also demonstrates how dependent we are to natural resources and where humans can end-up if not used wisely. The global threats posed by climate change and declining natural resourcesconsequences of human activity- are publicized. The outcome, as seen in a short time-period in a 'Petri dish environment' can lead to rapid exhaustion and; an un-sustainable future. I document all activities happening in my projects (growing, transforming, changing) by using time-lapse video records. I'll present the video with the actual pieces. With my works, I consider our relationship to the natural world and I give the viewer messages about existence, harmony, connection and dependence on one another.