Zeynep

Dagli

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Zeynep Dagli

Zeynep Dagli, also known as Cosmic Sigh, composes visual ruptures charged with introspection and resistance. Through a careful yet spontaneous interplay of archival images, her collages expose the violence and systemic injustices embedded within contemporary society. Dagli's work compels viewers to confront uncomfortable truths—fragments that unsettle, disrupt, and demand reflection. In surrendering to her own intuitive process, she reveals new meanings hidden within familiar images, inviting ongoing reinterpretation and dialogue.

In the Words of the Artist

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More than anything, collage is a survival tool.

Analog collage, being a medium devoid of rigid rules or limitations, possesses a remarkable democratic and inclusive nature. It appeals to individuals of all ages, making it accessible to everybody and establishing a secure space for open dialogue and interpretation of all kinds of experiences. I believe that this artistic medium holds immense potential to facilitate intimate experiences.

It is, for me, the very exploration of negotiations and reflections on internal/external struggles, delving into the vulnerability we all experience in the face of traumatic events. Taking refuge in analog collage provides a means of navigating these emotions.

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I have been developing a visual strategy, nurtured over three decades – with the last eight years seeing a shift in focus towards analog collage, which helps me create distance while maintaining a sense of sanity through artistic expressions on the issues I am passionate about. Tenaciously embarking on projects, whether collaborative/community-based or individual, to evolve my visual and creative methodology to engage and grapple with both historical and contemporary battles.

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Music, coffee, and cigarettes. Archival search for the right image or images. Creating a mess. Experimenting for hours. Settling in one, only then going back to books in search of the right title. Creating obstacles from time to time either one magazine or one image.

At times it's so overwhelming how an image haunts you, and how combined with another you discover endless combinations: each arrangement resonating with something significantly different. One cannot settle with one. Rather cannot stop oneself from revealing, uncovering, and capturing all these interruptions that present a new meaning, feeling, and allusion. I surrender to this process voluntarily even though there are times I scare myself and/or what appears to live on paper becomes the only negotiation.

Usually darker than dark subject matters, for a critical examination of key societal themes that predominantly disturb and disrupt, such as violence, war, subjugation, and oppression. Confronting what I cannot anymore unsee and unhear. I am driven by my fury at what is unfolding in this unjust and maddening world: echoing bell hooks' critique of the 'imperialist-white-supremacist-capitalist-heteropatriarchy.’ The driving force has been to create a space for reflection and resistance (not only for the maker but for the audience, too).

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About the Artist

Zeynep Dagli is an aging queer, immigrant, London based analog collage maker once involved in design, academic life, short films, video-art now more in community work, volunteering and obsessively cutting and pasting; passionate about disability and LGBTQI+ arts and rights, all marginalized and underrepresented voices - to which they belong - with an intersectional, experimental and unobtrusive approach; forever interested in dissenting gestures to break the conventional gaze.

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