Mustafa Boga

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Medium: Freehand Machine Embroidery

Dimensions: Varies (please check each image above)

Year: 2020

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I work across many mediums; photography, video, performance and installation are all a part of my practice. I often revisit themes and rituals from my ancestral home in my works - manipulated images of my family members, ceremonial flower arrangements and radically embroidered quilts offer hints into my upbringing in Turkey’s south. During the lockdown, I have started making freehand machine embroidery and tried to capture a vision for a post-pandemic future, along with a journey through my creative influences and history. 

 

When l start making each work with this medium, however, l make plans and lay out all the yarn with colour coordination, but in the end, improvisation leads me. The randomness of mistakes make sense when you look at the work from a few feet away. The process becomes quite satisfying after adding hundred of meters of thread and suddenly, an impression appears. 

 

First I prepare a digital collage and turn that into a physical work by using sewing machine embroidery. It takes a long time and involves a lot of improvisation as well as mistakes that lead me to take new directions. 

I particularly enjoyed sewing the section depicting a sack of thread or a pile of textiles. While the thread is the fabric of the piece, it also becomes the object. I also noticed how time is captured when making these images. The needle with the thread; green, red, yellow, blue, shapes a memory. Two weeks elapse and these works remain. 

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You can read a recent interview about my work and watch a video below to see the process. 

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https://omm.art/en/news/omm-studio-i-in-conversation-with-mustafa-boga

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