At the center of Mevlana Lipp's work "Needle" (2025), a stiletto emerges as the dominant element, surrounded by blossoms. In places, it slices through delicate petals, its blade seemingly infused with an inner glow—a bluish luminescence that lends it an almost otherworldly presence. The weapon itself bears floral elements, as if it were not merely an instrument of violence but an organic extension of the plant world. It both cuts and pierces the flowers, yet at the same time, they appear drawn to it, like moths irresistibly attracted to light.

The work explores polarity—danger and beauty, attraction and violence. Encircling the central composition, a series of pearls form an ornamental frame. These pearls symbolize both purity and sexuality, their very nature embodying transformation: born from the irritation of a sharp grain of sand, a foreign and potentially harmful intrusion, they are transmuted within the shell into objects of luminous perfection.

The entire piece revolves around these opposing forces, which, rather than canceling each other out, remain simultaneously present, shaping and defining one another in their tension.

Mevlana Lipp (b. 1989 Cologne, Germany) lives and works in Cologne, Germany. His solo exhibitions include Vista (2024, Capsule Venice, Venice, Italy); Haptic Memory (2022, Capsule Shanghai, Shanghai, China); Pacific (2021, Plus One Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium); Fluidum (2020, Andersen's Contemporary: The Other's Space, Copenhagen, Denmark). He has participated in group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen, Germany (2024); PM/AM Gallery, London, UK (2022); The Hole, Los Angeles, USA (2022); Workplace Gallery, London, UK (2021) and Tick Tack Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium (2020), among others.