Rooted in the Power of Women

When does care become a form of resistance? What is womanhood when no one is watching? These are some of the ideas that surface – quietly, insistently – in ‘Aysel’, the recent series by contemporary artist Shahnaz Aghayeva, now featured on our website as part of her representation with Fora Gallery.

Born in Sumgait, and now living in Bodrum, Aghayeva has long worked outside the conventional structures of formal art training. Self-taught in many ways, she approaches art as a deeply personal form of exploration rather than an academic exercise. The materials she uses – environmentally friendly and often recycled, such as linoleum, metal, cardboard, and glass – are far from neutral in her storytelling. They carry weight, friction, and depth. In her hands, they become a code for what is often unspoken and undefined in the lives of the women she depicts: their voices, their power, their presence. Aghayeva transforms objects into potent symbols of identity. Her choice of medium underscores a sustainable, resourceful approach that mirrors the spirit of the women she honors.

The series ‘Aysel’ centers on a fictional figure, yet it is difficult to pinpoint where symbolism ends and lived experience begins. Aysel’s daily routine forms the quiet rhythm of the narrative. Her being, her living, her existence are intimately entangled to her cow’s; one cannot be imagined without the other. It would be easy to read this bond as sentimental, but Aghayeva resists such interpretation. The relationship between the woman and the cow becomes a metaphor for sublimated identity in her lens: “Who is more Aysel – the woman, or the cow?” the artist asks. The answer is left deliberately open.

The works are visceral in their imagery. The female body recurs across the series – an enduring motif through which Aghayeva traces the emotional topography of women whose lives often unfold in silence or in service. Her characters do not demand to be seen, nor do they perform. They simply exist, in full complexity and contradiction.

‘Aysel’ operates in the realm of quiet defiance. It marks a shared state of being, resisting resolution and refusing simplification.