PRESERVING HURT
MEDIUM: EMBROIDERY ON PHOTOGRAPH, 17.5cm x 15.5cm
I can't cut you out,
since you're in my blood
lace borrowed from my mom
needle & thread
I'll work my way around
things that have touched me are too tight to rip,
too hard to crack
I'm a museum, a chest, an archive.
“What can you do with the reminders of people who let you down? The family you are no longer a part of (have you ever been?), the people you no longer recognise looking back at you in a time capsule that is called a photograph. You are a collector by nature, an archivist, unable to trash things. What else to do but hold on?
Not all that we preserve has to be preserved out of love. This is my hurt, my disappointment turned into something tangible and raw. My fingerprints are all over this old photograph, beneath the texture I stitched.
On the right side, there's a scorpion motif. It represents unprovoked strife and malevolence. Anatolian people use scorpion motifs in rugs and carpets to ward off harm and harmful creatures. And on the other side, in the left corner, there's a crochet made by my mother. With a part of the poem I wrote on top. It is a collection of things that I fear and cherish, a protection spell, or an outlet for my anger. Its correlations are clear to anyone who knows the story.”
Begüm, 22, Turkey ✯ IG: @venicebeyach