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Meshwork

The installation traces the continuity between ancient weaving practices and contemporary technological infrastructures, examining how lines, networks, and flows of information shape shifting relations of connectivity, memory, and power.

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In Meshwork, Merve Mepa materializes a multifaceted structure that weaves an intricate web of connections marked by traces of past and present technologies. The cables and pipes running through the structure form a mesh that intertwines all elements, with electronic screens functioning as nodes.

Connected to computers via a local area network, these screens display archival footage synchronized with loom sounds, tracing the trajectory of technological systems shaping the world. Reproductions modeled on archaeological cord-pressed ceramic relics—thought to have been used for record-keeping—lie beneath the platform on the ground. Surrounding microcontrollers capture real-time network traffic within the exhibition space through an oscilloscope, while computer fans adjust their speed in response to the flow of data.

The installation centers on the notion of line, derived from linea, meaning “linen thread” in Latin, and explores how linearity manifests across various systems, from weaving practices to the evolution of computing. The routes or pathways along which information and resources flow within visible and invisible networks are composed of lines, often straight and orderly.

These lines establish not only connections but also boundaries that divide the occupied area into regional blocks. This fragmentation transforms our understanding of place, shifting from organic, community-based systems to centralized network environments, where connections are concentrated in “power nodes” like data centers. Organizing information and movement through specific patterns, such environments also shape today’s internet and social networks, as well as underground and overground infrastructures.

Whereas “meshwork,” from which the installation takes its title, refers not to a network of connections but to interwoven lines of growth and movement that are in constant flux. This perspective, framed by anthropologist Timothy Ingold, suggests that things emerge through life processes and that the focus on processes of life and creation foregrounds interconnected flows over fixed locations.

Meshwork highlights the entanglement and fluidity of evolving systems, from ancient weaving practices to the complex infrastructures of modern technologies. Spanning physical structures and digital networks, it unveils the shifting dynamics of connectivity, memory, and power.

You can visit the research page for more info.

Year
2025
Medium
Steel pipes, raised floors, screens, microcontrollers, custom electronics and ceramics
Sound Design and Technical Support
Alp Tugan
Commissioned by
Salt Research and Production Grant Exhibition, Salt Galata, 2025
Supported by
Salt Artistic Research and Production Grant Program 2024-2025 in collaboration with the BBVA Foundation
Acknowledgments
Arzu Altıncelik, Burak Ayazoğlu, Ömer Karabuya, Yağmur İrfan, Zachary Tong
Installation view: suspended metal pipe structure with small screens over a raised platform, lit by vertical lights along the walls
Screen capture from one channel of the 11-channel video
Detail: bundles of curved metal pipes with a screen showing a grayscale image
Installation view: suspended network of metal pipes and small screens above a raised platform in a dark hall, visitors standing among it
Installation view: steel pipes descending from the ceiling to a raised floor with open floor tiles, small screens mounted along the pipes and a fluorescent light leaning against the wall
Detail from above: an oscilloscope showing a green waveform on a raised floor panel, steel pipes running around an opening in the floor
Detail: a dark ceramic form on a thin rod beneath the exposed frame of a raised floor
Grid of eleven black-and-white video stills: telephone switch parts, a coastal landscape with tents, a radar screen with a map, a circuit diagram, a chip layout, a cross-section of a cable and an ocean depth profile, among others
11-channel synchronized video and sound