The Self Within “Zenobia”
Olive Wood
85 × 63 × 23 cm
2026
Every tree has its own rhythm. — Ayhan Tomak
As the olive tree ages it twists, hollows out and opens deep cavities — yet it does not give up, and goes on living. Tomak has not closed off these naturally intricate textures and voids of the olive; on the contrary, he has turned them into the shadows, the eyes and the gaze of a face, letting the form be born from the tree’s own grain. This face, which takes its name from ancient lands, is our most honest moment of inner reckoning, hiding none of its flaws. It is the truest self we meet eye to eye within — the one no one else sees.