I am a cross-disciplinary artist and a researcher, and my work explores the collaborative potential between art and the biological sciences. My conceptual work Saltwater Heart (2015), installed on the deck of the Kaptan Paşa Sea Bus, is a large-scale model of the heart’s circulatory system through which saltwater flows, propelling the vessel. Matching in size the biggest living creature in the world, the blue whale, the boat becomes a whole new organism that runs on saltwater: seawater is pumped into the heart’s tubes with the aid of a compressor at the same rate as a whale’s heartbeat. By transforming this public transport vehicle, I offer a reminder that our oceans are governed by physical forces that create the effect of multiple pumps. When a pump we call the heart stops, life ends. I designed Saltwater Heart for the Fourteenth Istanbul Biennial curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev.
The Turkish-born artist Pınar...
