This project, The Gift, is the culmination of my residency at DAA, Bodrum in Turkey.
I am returning the threads of cotton and wool which came from the plants to their natural roots. I am tying them up to the pine tree, where they can stay and enjoy the company of wood or slide down to the ground and join the seeds, branches and buds.
I do so to emulate my experience of growth with the community of hand crafters in Bodrum I was introduced to by Cemre Ceren Asarli from DAA residency. They welcomed me to their group when I arrived in Turkey as an artist of the residency in May 2025. They inhabited the living room and terrace of my spacious, open and bright new home with their materials, tools and thread, but most importantly, the laughter. We connected immediately as women, celebrating the labour, effort and craftsmanship in all objects we brought to show or work on during the workshop. We shared coffees and cakes and Ayrun, the host of DAA residency got a chance to teach me how to make Turkish tea in traditional double pots. All of this was a marvellous bonding exercise as we played with darning, crochet and various ways of mending clothes, but we most enjoyed learning about each other. By exchanging ideas, we started talking about a large patchwork, so we decided to visit Bitez Bazar, a local flea market on Sunday to find the fabric for it.
We spend the whole day on the market, enjoying the crowd, the weather, the trinkets, the tea… It was another social occasion we cherished as a group, so we did not pay too much attention on the task, but as the crafters left, I come back to join the woman sitting on the plastic sheet on the floor and making flowers from the thread. We negotiate the price for the whole lot of different coloured bunches, and I walk away with the project material I tie up to the tree in front of my house at DAA the next morning. This was a gift to DAA as I was gifted with the great experience of people and place in Bodrum.
