‘Dirty Box’ - A Shadow Machine

‘dirty box’ is a shadow machine emerging from my research about craftsmanship in Istanbul.

Throughout images and shadows, it brings the life of craftsmen who helped the production of ‘dirty box’ and the chaotic deepness of Istanbul streets into light.

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I came to istanbul in 2004 to study and still I am living here.

Istanbul carries different images to different minds. While walking in the city, I let my body find its own path. By coincidences, bigger streets carry me to the smaller alleys, shadowy rooms, underground studios.

Through conversations, untold stories are unfolded and they shape the spaces.

I discover that my body follows the traces of dirt; where work, material and patience meet.

Dirt is the visual evidence of labour that comes through the hands.

My path passes from a variety of craftsmen studios. I watch how the limits of the material are being forced and shaped by the know-how of the masters. I witness how the tools act like a part of the craftsmen’s body with the knowledge coming from the experiences of the past generations.

Hand labour is losing its social and economical value day by day.

Craftsmanship in Istanbul is passing away with all the knowledge gained during generations.

Accelerating industrialisation, urban transformation and gentrification not only kill the crafts culture with its entire know-how; but also fade out their existence and importance in the history.

The paths I have been following in Istanbul in the recent years became my academical research. And making the dying traditional crafts visible by documentation, integrating and maintaining them in the existing system turned out to be an ambition.

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