doğa
2022–2023
The artwork is exhibited on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the Mylly building.
Introduction
I had been thinking about the concept of “home” even before I came to Helsinki.
In my new apartment, I was curious about what my neighbours’ homes looked like and put notes in their mailboxes, requesting a visit. Coincidentally, I met a social media group called “immigrant women Finland”. Around a long table, everyone shared their stories – when I told mine, and how none of my neighbours had replied to me, people at the table immediately invited me into their homes. Since then, my desire for warmth has brought about a responsive process.
As a small group, we started to gün yapmak, a practice loosely based on an old tradition in Turkey where “housewives” come together in each other’s homes to socialize and create an alternative self-sustained exchange of money or gold. I was experiencing the warmth of their houses, spinning a conversation about the conditions, needs, lacks, longings…
These expanding friendships sparked an idea of having 40-minute home conversations. This span of time refers to the idiom “a cup of coffee has a 40-year memory”. Many of these muhabbets accumulated to form a web of connections. With my mom, I wanted to talk more and more.
All the while, I was knitting to keep my hands busy. Knitting different tones of red yarn in many forms. The knit expanded the connections, relations, desires, and actions. Homes intertwined with each other and formed a flow as if it were knitted.
About the artist
Artist doğa was born in 1995 in İzmir.