Vocational School of Justice
40 YEAR MEMORY STRETCHING TO CHINA
The 40 year-memory of a good cup of Turkish coffee turned into fashion art, and was accepted among the artworks of 78 artists coming from all around the world at the international exhibition International Fiber Arts Biennial.
Prof. Dr. Elvan Özkavruk Adanır, Head of Department of Fashion and Textile Design, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, Izmir University of Economics (IUE) has been selected for the biennale that will take place in Beijing, China in October with her artwork based on coffee and needle lace, both of which have a significant place in Turkish culture. Jovita Sakalauskaite, Lecturer at IUE Department of Fashion and Textile Design will also attend the biennale with her three-dimensional sculptures she created with needle felting based on seven different emotions and characters. Prof. Dr. Adanır and Sakalauskaite will be representing Turkey among artists from countries such as Japan, Korea, France, USA, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina, Holland, Russia, England, Norway, Germany, and China.
Prof. Dr. Adanır stated that she dedicated her artwork to 40 women in her life that she had coffee with based on the saying, 'the memory of a good cup of Turkish coffee lasts 40 years'. Prof. Dr. Adanır reported that she made the coffee cups out of fabric and adorned them with needle laces, and pointed that coffee had a significant place in Turkish culture. “Coffee and use of needle laces in cotton scarfs have a significant place in Anatolian culture. Needle laces in particular are used by women in rural areas to express their feelings and thoughts to their spouses and loved ones. I used many needle laces namely daisy, spring branches, violet, freesia, roselle, maypop, and butterfly in this project. For example, pepper pattern needle lace is used to tell the husband that the bride is not getting along well with the mother-in-law. Coffee cups and needle laces have been used together to express the secrets women share with each other, or emotions and thoughts they cannot tell others. I engraved the names of the women I had coffee with so far on the fabric coffee cups I created,” said Prof. Dr. Adanır.
“From Lausanne to Beijing, International Fiber Art Biennale” was being organized since 2000, and it was being co-supported by the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, and China’s National Arts Fund, reported Prof. Dr. Adanır.
'Felt sculptures of 7 characters'
Lecturer Jovita Sakalauskaite pointed that she had been selected to attend the biennale with her three-dimensional sculptures she created with needle felting. Sakalauskaite said, “I have been studying the expression of human faces for last couple of years. I have focused on seven different emotions and characters: pride, greed, envy, lust, gluttony, wrath, and laziness. I wanted to reflect the seven deadly sins on human faces and the characters on three dimensional felt via needle felting technique”.