Motus

The Body in Relation to Movement

Not frozen moments, but moving echoes. Motus captures the body in flux—between gesture and memory, rhythm and breath.

Motus is an umbrella project exploring the relationship between the body and movement. Not movement as athletic performance or choreographed spectacle, but movement as emotional residue—the tension held in a shoulder, the arc of a breath, the echo left behind after a gesture has passed. The project spans multiple modes, each with its own visual language, methodology, and context, ranging from studio work to street encounters, from long-exposure blur to frozen instants of improvisation.

In Flux, the body exists in states of transition and indeterminacy. Some images use long exposures to render flesh in soft blur—skin and hair dissolving into warm gradients against darkness, the body accumulating rather than freezing. Others are sharp but no less fluid: figures interact with white fabric or paper that folds, unfurls, and shapes itself around them, creating forms that are part origami, part wing, part breath made visible. In both modes, the boundary between body and material, between stillness and motion, remains deliberately unstable. The reference is painterly—Gerhard Richter’s photo-paintings, where certainty dissolves into atmosphere—but also sculptural, recalling the draped figures of Hellenistic marble where cloth and flesh become indistinguishable.

Stills, developed in collaboration with art director Meryem Aydın, introduces a different methodology. Five contemporary dancers were shown a series of everyday objects—a mirror, a suspended fish, a sponge, roses, a crumpled paper—and asked to respond through improvised movement, not by imitating the object’s form but by embodying the feeling it evoked. The resulting photographs are presented as diptychs: Aydın’s object photographs paired with Yıldırım’s dancer images. Here, stillness is not the absence of movement but its crystallisation—the instant where impulse becomes form.

In Haste / Ayaküstü takes the project into the street. Over four years, ballerinas appeared spontaneously in Istanbul’s urban fabric—stepping from traditional stages into subways, alleys, cafes, and historical squares. The focus, however, is not on the dancers themselves but on the expressions of the city’s residents who witness these extraordinary moments: astonishment, curiosity, nonchalance. The mirror held up to the city finds its meaning in the faces of passersby. The project was exhibited in Istanbul in 2014 and at the Volksbank Heilbronn in Germany in 2019, and continues in Berlin’s streets. With their elegance set against the metropolis’s ever-transforming places, the ballerinas create an intentional distance between performer and pedestrian—expressing alienation while reminding us of the transient soul of urban life.

Across all modes, Motus asks the same question: what does the body know that the mind has not yet named? Étienne-Jules Marey’s chronophotographs decomposed movement into sequential phases; Eadweard Muybridge froze the galloping horse. Motus takes the opposite approach—not analysis but synthesis, not separation but merge. Whether the shutter stays open to accumulate blur or snaps shut to capture a single breath, the project treats motion not as action to be documented but as something felt in the body before it reaches the mind.

The project is ongoing, with new modes in development. Selected works are available as limited edition archival prints through Artsper, Saatchi Art, and Artmajeur.

In Haste

A dancer in a flowing dress poses gracefully in a bustling market, surrounded by people and street vendors, captured in black and white.

Stills

FLUX

Blurred figure with red hair, striking a pose against a dark background, emphasizing movement and sensuality in nude art.
Bare legs stand on a reflective surface, with the background illuminated by muted tones, emphasizing form and texture.
Nude figure with long red hair, captured in motion against a dark backdrop, emphasizing fluidity and form. Reflective surface below.
A blurred figure with red hair poses against a dark background, arms raised, conveying a dynamic and expressive moment in nude art.
A nude model with vibrant red hair poses against a black backdrop, arms raised, creating a sense of motion and dynamic expression.
A figure with red hair stands against a black wall, arms raised, captured with motion blur to convey energy and movement.
Silhouette of a woman dancing against a dark background, illuminated by a warm orange glow, highlighting flowing hair and graceful movement.
Silhouetted figure in motion against a warm orange light, capturing a sense of freedom and artistry in a dark setting.
Softly blurred nude figure with flowing hair against a dark background, evoking a sense of movement and intimacy.
Soft focus on a woman's torso with flowing hair, highlighting gentle curves against a deep black background. Warm tones create a serene ambiance.
Soft, blurred contours of a nude torso against a dark background, with flowing hair suggesting movement and fluidity.
Abstract nude figure partially in motion, against a dark background, highlighting soft contours and flowing hair.
Soft-focus nude form with flowing hair against a dark background, highlighting curves and gentle contours. Subtle play of light and shadow.
Blurred figure with flowing hair, partially nude, against a dark background, conveying motion and fluidity in form.
Softly blurred figure in motion against a dark background, highlighting skin tones and flowing hair, evoking a sense of fluidity and intimacy.
Abstract portrayal of a nude form with flowing hair, captured in soft, blurred tones against a dark background.
A blurred figure with flowing hair in motion against a dark backdrop, capturing the essence of dynamic movement and fluidity.
Abstract exploration of the human form, featuring a blurred nude figure against a dark background, highlighting soft contours and movement.
Black and white composition featuring a nude figure seated cross-legged, arms raised, against wrinkled white backdrop.
A nude figure gracefully strides across a textured white backdrop, emphasizing form and movement in stark black and white.

All Projects / Exhibitions

UnNude

Silhouette of a crouching figure on a light background, emphasizing muscular limbs and dynamic pose, creating a sense of movement.

Not nude, but reimagined. In UnNude, flesh becomes form, and desire fades into geometry.

Niche

A nude figure sits gracefully on a vintage red velvet sofa, illuminated by natural light from a nearby window against a deep blue wall.

Niche is a space of tender withdrawal—where silence echoes in fabric, corners, and breath.

Ecotone

Naked figure partially obscured by foliage, posed against a tranquil lake, surrounded by lush greenery under soft sunlight.

Body becomes part of a living landscape—blurring the lines between skin, soil, and sunlight. 

Elsewhere

A nude model poses gracefully in a vibrant alley, adorned with pastel-colored walls and hanging laundry above.

Elsewhere follows the body through city shadows—unnoticed, unstilled, unreal.

Antemortem

A nude figure stands in a dimly lit barn, holding a ram's skull, framed by wooden slats and a window, in black and white.

A body caught between memory and erasure. Antemortem traces the soft residue of life before it slips into silence.

Crave

Silhouetted figures of a couple embrace closely, shrouded in smoke, highlighting their intimate connection against a soft, light backdrop.

Desire speaks in color. Crave paints the body with longing, each image trembling between heat and hunger.

Motus

A blurred figure with red hair poses against a dark background, arms raised, conveying a dynamic and expressive moment in nude art.

Not frozen moments, but echoes in motion. Motus captures the body in flux—between gesture, memory, and breath.

Lucida

Portrait of a figure with luminous, multicolored body paint against a dark background, delicately touching their chin, exuding ethereal beauty.

Under blacklight, the body becomes flare—a glow, an echo, a mirage. Lucida seeks the threshold where form dissolves.

Chimera

Monochrome image of a distorted human form submerged in water, with fluid reflections creating soft, wavy contours and shadows.

Mirrored, fractured, reformed. Chimera turns the body into illusion, where flesh bends under the gaze.

Melancholia

A nude figure leans on a wooden piano, surrounded by soft, warm lighting and draped fabric, conveying an intimate, melancholic mood.

Melancholia doesn’t shout—it lingers. These images carry silence, like a breath held too long.