Days into Nights - Freehand Machine Embroidery
Artist Statement:
I work across mediums with enviable ease: Photography, video, performance and installation are all a part of his 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.
Flea Market in Adana
When l start making each work with this medium, however, l make plans and layout all the yarn with colour coordination, 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 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.
Pumpking & a Self Portrait of the artist
I particularly enjoyed sewing the section depicting a sack of thread or 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.
Artist Biography:
Mustafa Boğa is an artist based in the UK and Turkey. He completed his masters degree in 2016 from Central Saint Martins in London after studying for an MA in Fine Art. He also obtained another masters degree from Greenwich University in London after studying an MA in Cinematography and Post Production. Before that, he achieved a bachelors degree from Istanbul University after studying at the Faculty of Communication and Journalism. Mustafa has won several awards including The Red Mansion Art Prize and Ashurt Emerging Artist Prize. He got a fellowship at RAW Material Company in Dakar, Senegal. Mustafa has recently worked with international artists such as Otobong Nkanga and Irena Haiduk, and has performed in Documenta14 in Kassel, Germany and selected to perform at The Royal Academy in conjunction with the Ai Weiwei exhibition in 2015.
You can follow more of Mustafa's work at www.mustafaboga.com and via his Instagram @bogamust.