Defne Tesal

Defne Tesal’s work explores repetition as both a physical process and a way of experiencing time. Working across painting, drawing, embroidery, video, woven sculpture, and site-specific installation, she builds works through recurring gestures, allowing movement, rhythm and material behaviour to determine their form.

Born in Istanbul in 1985, Tesal studied Stage and Costume Design at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University before completing an MA at St. Joost School of Art & Design in the Netherlands in 2019. Her practice has subsequently developed through residencies at the School of Visual Arts in New York, KulttuuriKauppila Art Centre in Finland and, most recently, the Delfina Foundation in London.

Tesal often works with simple materials such as thread, pencil and paint, using repetition to reduce observed landscapes and everyday experiences to fields of colour, lines and directions of movement. Elsewhere, she deliberately limits conscious decision-making, allowing drawings, videos and performances to develop as immediate responses to what she sees, hears and feels. This balance between structure and intuition is central to her work.

Rather than treating repetition as mechanical, Tesal uses it to slow perception. Circular, rhythmic and sometimes static movements offer a counterpoint to the persistent forward momentum of contemporary life. Particularly in her installations, the work extends beyond the object itself, establishing a relationship among material, architecture, and the viewer's movement through space.