Archives
14 March, 2019
Ceyda Oskay is the new artist in residence in our current exhibition, Room to Breathe. As with previous artists, we asked Ceyda and the curator in residence of the art studio, Dima Karout, a series of questions and answers to find out more about Ceyda’s artistic practice.
Ceyda uses textiles to explore symbolic themes around migration experiences, inviting us to engage with more abstract concepts and reminding us that individual migration projects are shaped by more than the structural dimensions of poverty or conflict. Her interest revolves around the exploration of dreams, utopias, dystopias in migration experiences, and her artistic practice features a unique use of textiles, imprints and interactive spaces.
Ceyda is also offering visitors the chance to participate in workshops where they can learn about, and contribute to the making of, a wide range of objects and artworks.
Ceyda Oskay’s studio in “Room to Breathe” © Migration Museum
Assunta Nicolini (AN): Textiles are the dominant medium in your artistic practice, especially your work currently on display at the Migration Museum – why textiles in particular?
Ceyda Oskay (CO): I’ve always been interested in textiles. My mother and grandmother taught me different textile techniques in Turkey and I remember making clothes for my Barbie dolls. Growing up in Saudi Arabia, part of the Silk Road, I remember going to fabric markets with my mother, where there would be textiles from all around the world. I loved textiles for their diversity and expressiveness. It always felt very natural for me to use textiles to express myself or my ideas with.
Additionally, socially, textiles have been very important in world history from the trade in natural dyes and the social status of Tyrian purple for royalty, the trade in indigo and its transformative effect on farms in India, to textile weaving and the British industrial revolution.
Having moved around a lot, I have always been interested in the versatility of textiles, and the way they can so easily be transported. I am also interested in, and I’m co-writing a chapter on, Sadu weaving – which is the nomadic weaving used to make tents and bags in the Arabian peninsula and beyond. There, the textiles form a home.
Additionally, textiles themselves are transformative – they can be changed into another item just by altering the way they are sewn and put together. They are easy to experiment with and I like experimentation in my work. I like the versatility and expression textiles offer, and their universality.
A doodle blanket, 2018 © Ceyda Oskay
AN: To what extent has your lived experience as a migrant and a practitioner working with migrants and refugees around the world shaped your artistic and conceptual work? And how did you develop your interest in ideas of utopia, dystopia and dream in migration contexts?
CO: Interesting question – because for many years as a practitioner, I couldn’t make art in the traditional sense. I started to move away from art as an object, or even installation, and towards art as an experience.
I was interested in migration and war as memory, having done humanitarian work in relation to Syria and Iraq – but, rather than preserving this memory in an object, I’m more interested in creating new and diverse experiences between people that transform them and create the hope of something better.
I’m really interested in the work of the Artist Placement Group (APG), which embeds artists in institutions – and in work like Francis Alÿs’s paint can, where he pours a thin line of paint along an international border.
In terms of dreams, I’m currently trying to make person-specific sleepwear and sleeping bags: the blue Cyanotypes were going to be transformed into sleep clothes, and I’m collecting images from friends that are of a place that inspires or calms them . . . I’m collecting sound recordings of lullabies in different languages, and trying to put that together with creating sleeping bags. It’s a way of bringing object, travel, experience and interactivity together. I’d love it if visitors contributed lullabies, or took part in the dream-clothes somehow.
AN: Dima, as curator in residence of the art studio inside Room to Breathe, could you tell us how and why you selected Ceyda’s work and how it relates to the other upcoming artists in residence?
Dima Karout: When I was invited to curate the art studio space, the first thing I proposed was to take a democratic approach and to launch an open call allowing us to reach migrant artists based in London and working on themes related to resilience through art.
We offered residencies to Ceyda Oskay, Shorsh Saleh and Belen L Yañez, three artists with a body of work inspired by their personal journey and human connections – artists who are generous, able to share their knowledge and creative process, and willing to include visitors in a participatory practice.
I was touched by Ceyda’s unique journey: travelling between countries, then landing in London with experiences related to different communities in which she had witnessed people’s stories and connection to their surroundings, and where she had created participatory art, and undertaken humanitarian work. I sensed that Ceyda’s presence at the Museum would provide visitors with an intimate experience and an elaborate understanding of the meaning of home and belonging.
When you step into Ceyda’s studio at the Migration Museum, you are immediately immersed in fragile stories assembled with a high level of sensitivity, intimate moments that she brilliantly re-created to communicate fragments of her journey. Ceyda created a dreamlike space for all of us to experience on our own: textile art filling the walls, a shell series presented in a corner, an open invitation to all visitors to share their lullabies, dreams and places. Through this experience visitors can engage in a wider conversation around the illusional borders that some of us have never visited and shake our perception about the meaning of a place.
“The Bosphorous between Asia and Europe – The seagull has migrated from Peru – The textiles look dream-like, reminding us of dreams and places we go to in our dreams, and of utopias and dystopias” © Ceyda Oskay
A wall in Ceyda’s studio combines photos from the Bosphorus printed on fabrics using Cyanotype print technique. With its blue shades, the work brought the sky and the sea into my thoughts. And one of the photos in particular brought me to my own journey. I found myself glimpsing out of Ceyda’s window while juxtaposing my own hometown over her landscape – I floated to Damascus creating an assemblage of its building as if I were standing there in the comfort of my distant home.
Ceyda’s work is powerful. It took me and museum visitors on a textural and pictorial journey full of fragility, humanity, dreams and hope. And I am happy that with the museum team and visitors we were given the chance to discover and reflect on this influential work.
AN: Belen and Shorsh, as upcoming artists in residence, could you tell us how you relate to specific work by Ceyda?
Belen L Yañez: Ceyda’s piece “Hands on Subway/London Underground” instantly grabbed my attention. I am currently working on a piece called “Encounters”, in which I invite participants to establish a dialogue with each other using their hands to foster an empathic connection with people who may not share the same cultural background nor have the same physical appearance. Ceyda’s piece is composed of several copies of photos of the hands of immigrants and people travelling within London. Stopping for a minute and observing those hands is enough to allow you to read their meaning. It was wonderful to breathe the diversity of travellers who inhabit the London Underground, to imagine their stories and somehow to connect with them for a few minutes.
Hands on subway/London Underground of immigrants and people travelling within London © Ceyda Oskay
Shorsh Saleh: Ceyda printed oyster shells that she found on the Isle of Sheppey in the UK. The shells have images of military pillboxes falling over that look like homes; other shells have images of boats on them.
© Ceyda Oskay
As a migrant myself, Ceyda’s work spoke to me about journeys taken across seas in search of a new homeland. I felt a connection to the shell series she is presenting in her art studio. The ethereal imagery of boats and seascapes symbolises to me the difficulty of journeys, all contained within a broken shell that had once been a safe home.
Ceyda Oskay is in Room to Breathe until Sunday 31 March and will be holding a pillow-making workshop on Saturday 23 March and a family T-shirt making workshop on Saturday 30 March. Tickets for both these workshops are available through Eventbrite. Assunta Nicolini, gallery supervisor, is curating further blogs about the next artists who are due to have a residency in the gallery (details are available on our exhibition page).
21 February, 2019
We are delighted to welcome Ceyda Oskay as our next artist in residence as part of our Room to Breathe exhibition. Ceyda will be taking up residency from 28 February until 31 March 2019.
Ceyda is a multimedia artist who frequently explores notions of place and human relationships in her work. Her work ranges from social practice and socially engaged work, to experimental photography, ceramics, sculpture and installation, fibre and textiles, to painting.
Ceyda studied at the University of Chicago, METU University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is currently at the Royal College of Art. She worked on humanitarian and development work for the United Nations for Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, for over ten years and is currently a consultant in the field. She has visited 24 countries, and studied, worked and exhibited in places including Iceland, Greece, Kuwait, Turkey, USA, UAE and the UK, most recently at the Liverpool Independents Biennial. She has also co-authored an upcoming publication on nomadic Sadu weaving in the Arabian Peninsula.
“Migration is a major theme in my artwork as I have moved about once a year for a very long time. Since coming to London last year, I’ve moved six times,” Ceyda writes in the text welcoming visitors to her art studio in Room to Breathe.
“Art-making for me is about expressing ideas and feelings, about exploring materials, about places and relationships. The materials I pick for each piece vary depending upon the particularities of each artwork. Much of my work is done with fabric, because of its nomadic, transportable nature. Other work is made from stronger material, but is small – again easily transportable. I also enjoy making crafts and utilitarian items in different ways, sometimes clothes and fashion – and this too is influenced by migration.
As I have done humanitarian work in the war contexts of , countries including Syria and, Iraq, among other places, Kuwait, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, my artwork is often influenced by war and conflict. This artwork is in the form of prints – like the imprints of a war. Some of my other artwork is about human interaction and social engagement, and is more about hope and forming new relationships.
My work has an experimental component: I often don’t know what it will be until it is complete.”
As well as hosting weekly drop-in sessions in her art studio during her residency, Ceyda will be running a programme of public workshops, ranging from pillow and t-shirt making to discussions on music, places, sleep and dreams – more details on all of which can be found below.
Artist-led workshops
Pillow-making workshop, Saturday 23 March 2019 | 2pm–5.30pm | £16 (advance booking essential – click here to book)
Family T-shirt making workshop, Saturday 30 March 2019 | 2pm–4pm | £10 (one adult and one child – click here to book)
Free drop-in sessions
Every Sunday between 3pm and 4pm during her residency, Ceyda will be in her studio in our Room to Breathe exhibition. You can stop by to chat with her, and make wire-prints of home on a traditional press. At the moment, she is working on making sleepwear from images her friends give her of places for a piece about dreams, places, and sleepwear. She would love to talk to you about places that provide calm and inspiration to you, places of home, utopias – and dreams.
During Ceyda’s open studio, participants will have access to paper, wire and a printmaking press where they can make wire line drawings of what reminds them of home, and create embossments (raised prints) from them. These will be exhibited in her studio alongside her artwork, during the time of her residency.
Drop-in sessions: Every Sunday from 3 March until 31 March 2019 | 3pm–4pm
Residency details
Dates: 28 February–31 March 2019
Address: Migration Museum at The Workshop, 26 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7AG
Opening hours: Thursday 12pm–8pm, Friday–Sunday 12pm–6pm
Find out more about Ceyda Oskay (website: ceydaoskay.com, Instagram: ceydaoskayart)
About the art studio in Room to Breathe
The art studio inside our Room to Breathe exhibition is a space curated by visual artist and educator Dima Karout to explore the role of art and creativity in helping people settle into new lives in Britain, and to offer educational art experiences for visitors. Each month, the studio will host a different migrant artist to share their work and process.
View the full schedule of artists in residence and find out more about Room to Breathe
11 February, 2019
George Alagiah, presenter of BBC News at Six and a distinguished friend of the Migration Museum Project, wrote about why Britain needs a Migration Museum and his efforts to help us find a permanent home in the New Statesman.
8 February, 2019
We are approaching the end of our third monthly residency in our current exhibition, Room to Breathe: the New Art Studio, an art therapy practice supporting asylum seekers and refugees in London, will be leaving the gallery on 24 February, and Ceyda Oskay will be moving into the space the following week.
In the course of their residency, the New Art Studio have transformed the space into a display gallery for previous and current artworks created by a diverse group of people, with different backgrounds and artistic interests. Visitors to the museum have the chance to meet the artists, see how they work and to participate in weekly workshops held by the New Art Studio. They will be holding a workshop for the next three Saturdays in February (9, 16 and 23) – to which everyone is of course welcome.
This blog explores the main aspects of art therapy practice through a series of questions and answers with the New Art Studio’s founders, Jon Martyn and Tania Kaczynski, and with Aditi Anand, curator at the Migration Museum.
Assunta Nicolini (AN): Art therapy among disadvantaged groups such as asylum seekers and refugees is recognised as a powerful tool to help overcome the trauma that exile and displacement cause. And being part of art therapy groups like the New Art Studio provides refugees and asylum seekers with the possibility of exhibiting their artworks and accessing a wider audience, one that is interested in migration as well as in the arts. Art therapy in the context of migration can be an extremely empowering process through which individuals can develop and sustain resilience. Jon and Tania, as current artists in residence at the Migration Museum, could you tell us about your experience of combining art therapy with a museum setting?
Jon Martyn and Tania Kaczynski, New Art Studio (NAS): We have found the workshops to be very inspiring. It was interesting to see the public’s responses to the paintings, and their engagement with the process of art making itself. There was a valid exchange between members of the studio and the general public. Many people have never met asylum seekers before and it enabled experiential learning, on both sides.
Students from the University of Roehampton, London, responding to the work created by the New Art Studio members during their visit with Dima Karout to the “Room to Breathe” art studio. © Dima Karout
AN: Art therapy is a relatively new interdisciplinary field. How do you see the intersection of psychotherapy and art in the context of migration?
NAS: Creativity is essential for asylum seekers: when all is lost, imagination is the only place of true freedom. The process of art making demystifies psychotherapy and destigmatises the asylum experiences. The need to make a mark is urgent when one’s life has been under threat. It is a way to confirm one’s existence.
AN: The artworks displayed in the ‘Room to Create’ at the Migration Museum have received considerable attention from visitors. How did your clients – those who are exhibiting in the gallery – react to this?
NAS: The members of the New Art Studio felt very proud to see their work in a public place and were impressed with the number of people who came to look at and respond to their artwork and stories. They are often unheard and unseen.
A war scene by Sayed
AN: In terms of the commercial viability of art produced by asylum seekers and refugees, what is the balance you strike between the risk of exploitation and empowering and supporting such artists?
NAS: One of the ways we avoid exploitation is by giving control to the members. That is, they select the work that they want to show, and they receive the funds if a work is sold. Powerful experiences create powerful, soulful authentic work, which is popular within the current art world.
The public responds well to seeing this work because the asylum experience is mostly misrepresented or not represented at all. The paintings work on a universal level, often addressing issues of loss, hope, and belonging.
Village scene by Akram
AN: Aditi, as co-curator of Room to Breathe, has the New Art Studio residency lived up to your expectations?
Aditi Anand (AA): My co-curator, Sue, and I were introduced to the New Art Studio more than a year ago. When we first visited their studio in Islington – where the group meets once a week – we immediately felt it was a special place. The walls were fully covered in artwork, the tables were strewn with art materials, and there was a real sense of warmth and community. It was clear to us after speaking with the studio members that making art was a really important part of their lives: people told us that, regardless of what was going on with the Home Office, work or family, they rarely missed their Monday studio time together.
When we invited the group to be artists-in-residence inside Room to Breathe, it was with the hope that it would be an opportunity for them to have even more time and space to make art and to share their work with the public. The group had complete freedom to turn the art studio inside the exhibition into their own space and use it as they wanted. We knew it would be challenging for some of the group members to move from the familiar, intimate space of their Islington studio to a very public museum setting, and that not everyone would feel comfortable doing so. But it has been really fantastic to see that several members have started to use the space as their studio and fill the walls with their work. Audiences have responded very strongly to the work, and the weekly art-making workshops led by Tania and Jon have been very popular. The studio has become a ‘room to create’ not only for the artists involved but also visitors to the museum. The New Art Studio residency has done just what we had hoped – connect people through the act of making art, without the need for a common language or culture.
Painting by Brahim
AN: Room to Breathe has a curatorial narrative strongly focused on the dimension of resilience in the arrival phase of migration. In your opinion, to what extent does art therapy contribute to the creation and development of resilience for migrants and refugees?
AA: Making art and being creative allows us to explore all the different facets of who we are as people, and not to be just defined by a single thing, such as our race, class, gender or immigration status. I think that’s what makes art therapy so powerful in helping people develop resilience – it allows us to connect with our emotions and who we are as individuals. Resilience is one of the themes within the exhibition, but it’s also important to recognise there are many times in our lives where we don’t feel particularly strong or resilient. In fact, it’s quite normal to feel that way, and art is one of the ways that we can channel and process our feelings of uncertainly or even despair. Being able to express ourselves without judgement is one of the most therapeutic aspects of making art.
The New Art Studio are in Room to Breathe until Sunday 24 February and will be holding workshops on the three Saturdays up to their departure (9, 16 and 23). Assunta Nicolini, gallery supervisor, is curating further blogs about the next three artists who are due to have a residency in the gallery (details are available on our exhibition page).
