stained glass, tooth, adhesive copper tape, lead, part of the exhibition ‘Eye Ear Claw’ xyz species and mermaid @Istanbul University Zoology Museum, 2026

My restoration and conservation work at the Zoology Museum began with listening to the story of a lion that had been gifted to the museum. People from the university told me that the lion in the museum collection was missing a tooth and asked, “Could you make a tooth for him?” I had never tried anything like this before, but I said that I could research the materials and, of course, try to make one.

This was the story of Mecnun, the lion in the museum collection. According to the story, Mecnun had once been sent from India as a gift to a high-ranking state official. During the journey, it is believed that he lost his teeth while trying to break apart his cage from stress. He died before reaching Ankara and eventually ended up in the museum.

What began with the attempt to make a tooth for him gradually turned into a longer journey of making eyes, ears, and claws for other species in the museum. In the end, I tried several teeth for the lion, made from wax and ceramic, but none of them looked or felt right in his mouth. I would either have had to remove all the previous interventions from his mouth, or he would have ended up with artificial-looking white teeth. His taxidermy was already quite problematic, he no longer even resembled a real lion.

After almost a year, I organized an exhibition (Eye Ear Claw). For this exhibition, I found an unlabeled tooth in the storage area at the back of the museum, a tooth whose species and origin were unknown. I fixed this tooth onto a piece of stained glass and offered it as a gift to the lion.

Since Mecnun himself had once been sent as a gift, I wanted to give him a tooth as a gift in return. In doing so, I wanted to ask for his forgiveness.

During this process, I began to question the relationship between humans and power, the act of gifting a living being, the ways in which the museum’s existence is shaped by human curiosity, and many other related issues. While the human being tries to shape, carve, and define everything, it also destroys and erases.

Mecnun’s pedestal in the museum and the tooth I gifted to him.

stained glass, tooth, adhesive copper tape, lead

Istanbul University Zoology Museum, 2025