In In Transit: The Silence That Remains, Turkish-born, South Florida–based artist Sibel Kocabasi transforms textiles of survival and inheritance into meditative spaces of reflection. Working with emergency blankets, heirloom rugs, embroidery, and hand-crocheted forms, Kocabasi explores the fragile balance between displacement and resilience, memory and repair.
Her materials carry layered histories. Worn rugs once gifted as part of her dowry are stitched together with metallic fragments of emergency blankets—objects at once disposable and indispensable. In her hands, these contrasts become poetic: cocoon-like sculptures shimmer as protective shelters, embroidered rugs become sanctuaries, and golden blankets signal both alarm and care. Through repetition, layering, and the slow labor of stitching and weaving, Kocabasi transforms materials of crisis into quiet acts of continuity.
Rather than confronting with urgency, the exhibition invites stillness. The works unfold as contemplative terrains—spaces where visitors may pause, breathe, and encounter the echoes of migration, memory, and belonging. Cloaked figures, tent-like forms, and luminous surfaces suggest both absence and presence, loss and endurance. For Kocabasi, emergency becomes not only a condition of distress but also a call to gather, to witness, and to hold space for peace.
Ultimately, In Transit: The Silence That Remains asks how we carry home within us—through fabric, memory, ritual, and care. In Kocabasi’s hands, what appears fragile becomes a beacon: a reminder that from the materials of survival, one can weave not only shelter, but also hope.
Artist: Sibel Kocabasi