My Roommate Makes Monsters

My roommate builds creatures.

Gozde is a sculptor. Her works are offbeat, off-kilter, corporeal. She has a large studio near our apartment, the scene of many late-night wine-drenched heart-to-hearts. I like to spend time there, quietly, just watching metal and clay and plaster slowly transform from simple materials to marvelous monsters.

We are well-paired, Gozde and I. Photographers and sculptors fit together like puzzle pieces: She creates and I capture. I love watching her work, and she graciously lets me photograph her. Our aesthetics are similar. Her fixation on body parts mirrors my obsession with mannequins; we share an appreciation for gas masks and graffiti.

Most of the months of our cohabitation have coincided with Gozde’s final semester of university, so I’ve been privileged to watch her final project spring to life. Gozde builds creatures, and these were the biggest.

It’s strange how inanimate objects can take on personalities. Gozde built three giant beckoning hands, and soon our late-night studio hangouts were crowded with these new presences. They were eerie, they were protective, they were Gozde’s creatures. And they were WONDERFUL.

Living with new people in new places is like this. You start small and build upon a base, and build, and layer, and add, and suddenly you realize you’ve built a whole life in a glorious new space. Gozde is my closest friend in Istanbul, and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when that happened—we connected almost immediately—though it’s also hard to pinpoint when her sculptures stopped looking like materials held together and started becoming cohesive creations. Watching Gozde work in her studio sometimes feels to me like watching our friendship grow.

At the end of the semester, the creatures left the studio—they are now installed outside at Gozde’s university campus, to beckon to passers-by—and the emptiness was bizarre.

But it’s okay. Gozde is already scheming, dreaming, creating more creatures. My camera is ready. Bring on the monsters, baby.