The Home I Carry Within, 2026
Ceramics, wood
56 x 96 cm
The Home I Carry Within is a ceramic wall panel inspired by the doors of the house where artist spent her childhood and where her grandmother lived. This house witnessed not only her childhood but the lives of several generations – her grandmother’s parents lived there, and family memories were shaped within these walls over many years. For Umay, this place was where her first sense of safety, love, and belonging was formed.
The idea emerged when artist went to say goodbye to these streets. She felt as though I was not only parting with the houses, but also with her childhood, her grandmother, and an era that no longer exists. In that moment, she realized that these streets were not a physical space –they were a feeling that belonged to artist and lived within her. The streets where she grew up are gradually disappearing from the city today, yet their traces remain in her memory – in old surfaces, cracks, textures, and quiet details that time cannot erase. Each door in the work bears the imprint of a separate human story. Some are closed, like moments that belong to the past but are not forgotten. Some are slightly open, like passages where memories are still breathing.
“Today, I miss this house – a place that no longer exists physically but continues to live within me. When I look at this work, sometimes I feel emptiness, and at other times a strange warmth, as if that home is still protecting me. By creating these doors, I am not trying to bring the past back. I am simply trying to make peace with what I have lost and allow it to continue living within me”.