I work primarily with India ink, steel dip pens, and acrylic on handmade cotton paper and canvas. My drawings develop through repetitive, closely spaced lines, where each mark is an irreversible response to the one before it. Rather than depicting existing landscapes, the surfaces function as records of duration, pressure, and constraint.

Each project begins by establishing a fixed parameter: an accidental ink wash, a brushstroke, swept ridges of acrylic paint applied with a silicone wedge, or a setup of open ink carried into public spaces. Once these initial conditions are set, the execution is intuitive. The lines follow, bridge, or resist the underlying terrain, turning material resistance into structured topographies.

My process is tied directly to physical endurance and interrupted time. Drawing with a fine steel nib on fibrous paper demands continuous muscular and joint control; once physical fatigue sets in, the line wavers. Working in fragmented intervals across days, each break alters the hand’s tension, the pressure on the nib, and the rhythm of the mark. These breaks remain embedded in the finished work as visible registers of lived time.

BIO

Ilayda Mercankaya is a visual artist based in Stuttgart. She studied business administration and worked in market research before turning to art. She draws mainly with India ink and steel dip pens on handmade cotton paper, and paints with acrylic on canvas. Her work has been shown at the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2025).

EXHIBITIONS 2025 — Connections to 200 Years of the Present (Constellation 3), Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, DE

EDUCATION 2013 — BA in Business Administration (with Honors), Özyeğin University, Istanbul, TR

MEMBERSHIPS Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart