Referencing oya (lace edgings on headdresses in the Middle East), embroidery, and ornamentation, my work explores communication, acculturation, hybrid identity, and women’s work. Worn mainly as adornment and utility, oya was also used by women as expression where certain styles symbolized unspoken feelings like displeasure or happiness in a marriage. Ornaments are triggers of tension by teasing us in our vision’s periphery while our attention is on something else. They proliferate and thus overwhelm the structural underpinning of the figure they initially set out to embellish. Adapting this as a female immigrant, I create intercultural portraits layered with Islamic ornamentation, photography, embroidery, and crochet on textiles framed with oya. Domestic fabric surfaces like used, patterned bedsheets set the stage for solvent transfers of old photos from my Turkish heritage, my American husband, and immigrant families from found sources. I obscure the bodies, especially the faces, with embroidered and painted patterns, both to emphasize and complicate the idea of family and belonging. Humor, an influential part of my heritage, is fueled by lack of power and materializes in my work through symbols like party hats, fezzes, and solo cups. The draped fabrics are framed with colorful crochet similar to oya that often reference traditional styles as well as new motifs I make up like the green card edging reflecting my contemporary reality.
Click to Expand Images