Melis Arslan | 2022 | Textile Art & Mixed Media
“The body remembers what the mind forgets.”
What if our hands carried more than the lines of our lives? What if they preserved the memories of those who came before us — their gestures, beliefs, hopes, and unspoken stories?
In Sacred Palms of Karatay, Turkish multidisciplinary artist Melis Arslan explores the human hand as a living archive of memory, identity, protection, and spiritual connection.
Created as a pair of textile artworks, the composition presents two monumental golden palms emerging from deep burgundy velvet. Layers of organza, felt, wool, and translucent fabric surround the hands, creating an almost ethereal presence.
At the center of each palm appears the face of the Karatay Girl, a feminine figure inspired by the visual heritage of Seljuk Anatolia, particularly the ceramic traditions associated with the Kubadabad Palace.
Her presence connects the contemporary body to centuries of cultural memory. She is both an ancestral figure and an inner guide — a reminder that identity is not simply inherited but continually rediscovered.
The Palm as a Sacred Map
Throughout history, hands have represented creation, healing, protection, communication, and human connection.
In Arslan’s work, the open palms become symbolic maps. Their surfaces are marked with eyes, celestial signs, flowers, fish, and mysterious lines resembling the language of palmistry.
Each symbol carries a possible meaning.
The fish evokes abundance, movement, and the flow of life. The star suggests guidance and hope. The eye represents awareness and protection, while the lines of the palm speak of destiny, intuition, and the invisible connections between past and future.
Yet these symbols are not presented as predictions. They form a personal visual language through which the artist explores humanity’s desire to understand the unknown.
When Textiles Become Memory
The choice of materials is central to the work’s meaning.
Burgundy velvet provides a deep, almost ceremonial background. Its softness contrasts with the luminous gold of the hands, while felt and wool introduce a sense of physical weight and intimacy.
Translucent organza and frayed fabric edges extend beyond the contours of the palms, suggesting an invisible energy radiating from the body.
These layers evoke the accumulation of human experience: memories preserved, histories inherited, and emotions carried across generations.
The textile surface becomes more than a support for imagery. It becomes a metaphor for the human body itself — vulnerable, layered, and capable of preserving traces of touch.
Between Anatolian Heritage and Contemporary Identity
Drawing upon Seljuk visual culture, Arslan brings historical imagery into a contemporary artistic language.
The Karatay Girl is not confined to the past. Within the golden palm, she becomes a symbol of continuity between generations, particularly the transmission of feminine knowledge, intuition, and cultural identity.
The two hands, presented together, suggest openness rather than possession. Their gestures invite connection, exchange, and mutual recognition.
In this sense, Sacred Palms of Karatay is not simply about individual destiny. It is about belonging — to a culture, to a collective memory, and ultimately to one another.
The work proposes that our most meaningful inheritance may not be something we can see or own, but something we continue to carry.
“What lies ahead may already exist within us — encoded in gestures, held in memory, and drawn into the lines of our hands.”
Through the meeting of ancient symbols and contemporary textile practices, Melis Arslan transforms the palm into a place of remembrance, vulnerability, and hope.
The hands do not merely hold our future. They remember where we come from.
Artwork Details
Artist: Melis Arslan
Title: Sacred Palms of Karatay (Karatay’ın Kutsal Avuçları)
Year: 2022
Medium: Mixed-media textile installation; velvet, organza, felt, wool, acrylic, and gold-toned surfaces
Format: Two-part textile artwork / Tapestry
Dimensions: 81 × 110 cm per panel published 31.8 × 43.3 in. dimensions;
Exhibition: Antik Cisterna, Antik Hotel Istanbul, Sultanahmet, Türkiye — 9 April 2022
Curator: Murat Küçükyalı
Exhibition History — New York
Sacred Palms of Karatay by Melis Arslan was exhibited in New York in collaboration with Ayşegül Abay and Galeri Abay.
The presentation introduced the artist’s textile-based interpretation of Anatolian cultural heritage to an international audience, bringing Seljuk-inspired symbolism into dialogue with contemporary themes of identity, memory, and protection.
© Melis Arslan. All rights reserved.
