RECURRENCE

Reparation of the self 

As today’s technology welcomes our memories instead of our brains, what’s left for the quest of the inner self? The young artist Neslihan Baser seeks for inner peace through the act of sewing her memories. From canvas to installations, the process intends to re-enact the memory, and bring it to present. The artist reproduces the emotional experience of the memory while growing the healing effect through the act of sewing. Neslihan Baser’s research on memory and recollection is based on a self interrogation that bounds the study to a very personal story. The result of this research aims to remind the viewer how important one’s own inner world, and personal memories.

Reparation of the self, through the artist’s works, is an attempt to recreate emotions from her own memories, where the act of sewing frames the reality. The artist finds a close connection to Louise Bourgeois’ sewing works related to the notion of the reparation of the soul. Although, a main contrast lies in Louise Bourgeois’ act of sewing which aspired to expel hidden feelings experienced as trauma from her past and childhood1. Similarly but different, Neslihan Baser uses the needles to immerge herself in the act of sewing for their healing effect on the psychology. The side effect of sewing is involved in the long process as a part of the creation and therefore remains crucial within the result as she builds up a deep connection and expands her emotions. Through the act of sewing, the artist focuses on her feelings and turns this act into a meditative session of healing. The extensive process renounces to a pure aesthetic ambition that is combined with a strong psychological quest.

Becoming one 

This research leads the artist to produce the project inspired by “the kilim room” titled Becoming One made out of embroidery and threads on canvas. Neslihan Baser claims the room as a sacred space that she is spiritually attached to. The mise en abyme represents a door opening
to the artist’s studio from present time, while the same studio opens into the nature. Through Baser’s depiction of nature, the viewer recalls memories of the artist and discovers a summer house where her childhood has passed. In order to recollect memories, the artist displays paper works as artefacts from the same place expressing an emotional attachment with Taurus mountains. The collection relates to the artist’s childhood surrounded by nature observations and arises its positive effects on her.

Becoming One emphasises the connection between the past and present as it recounts Baser’s introduction to embroidery with fabric and yarn that she had inherited from her grandmother. Therefore, the notion of transmission becomes important to the artist who used to listen to her grandmother’s stories embodied with memories. As a result, artist’s approach to memory blends creativity and psychology together, while searching for her inner soul.

Through this exploration Neslihan Baser reactivates her emotions, highlighting the empirical aspect of the memory. Similarly to her approach, Wilhelm Dilthey addresses in his Ecrits d’esthétique2 to the cognitive experience in order to create a different understanding of one’s approach to the world. This process would, therefore, happens through the act of reexperience. From imagination, the viewer reexperiences what is perceived to get a better understanding. Thus, Neslihan Baser goes further and emphasizes the reenactment towards a better understanding of the inner self, bound to the healing effect of the emotion experienced in the memory. She embodies this process through the act of sewing which enables the artist to recapture the feeling connected to her inner self and her own memories in which the viewer gather the inclusive voice, opening its own inner world.

From one thought to another, she gave it to me and I give it to you 

Following the reference to the kilim, Neslihan Baser’s large scale installation titled From one thought to another, she gave it to me and I give it to you, maintains an ongoing conversation with the past. The inspiration comes from Kilim, known as a flat woven tapestry and appears to be the oldest textile-making production. The artist strengthens the connection to the past through her use of motifs, inspired by Çatalhöyük mural paintings –regarded as the world’s most ancient settlement– along with her grand- mother’s aforementioned legacy, who also cultivates an interest in motifs and their symbolic meanings. Moreover, the association of wall paintings in Çatalhöyük and the apparent kilim motifs on kilim goes back to prehistoric time. Neslihan Baser discerns the meaning of motifs as a witness of time that has been evolving over centuries. Those motifs evoke a statement about human nature through their spiritual and psychological aspects. The installation in the exhibition involves various symbols and motifs such as circles and triangles along with goddesses giving birth and cave motives. All together, the installation expresses hopes and expectations, longings and fears. Baser depicts this work as an act of sharing, giving and taking back through a symbolic narrative intending for a continuity.

Baser’s approach to forming a “new version” of kilim, finds its similarity with the practice of Belkis Balpinar, known as the founder and therefore the pioneer of “artkilim.” Belkis Balpinar has investigated the kilim and its tradition as she hangs the kilim on walls instead of spreading it on the ground. The approach of Belkis Balpinar aims to undertake a transfiguration of the tradition which then conveys a new spatial dimension stressing its depth, beyond the decorative aspect. In the path of Belkis Balpinar, Neslihan Baser’s research attempts to renounce the decorative understanding of sewing, also regarded specifically as a female activity. As previously mentioned, references to sewing occur to be feminine, in which the material is often considered to belong to women and used to express themselves. Nevertheless, the material tends to emphasize hidden feelings along with a spiritual concern as therapy, which once more is standardized towards woman giving prominence to emotional work. Neslihan Baser depicts fabric, thread and embroidery as a way for women to liberate their inner world, yet keep her distance with only women subject. Beyond these stereotypes in which these materials remain as ornaments and this activity to a woman practice, Baser’s research provides a distance and goes beyond as the artist sews a new history incorporating the traditional technique within its own tactual and organic qualities.

Neslihan Baser’s research and works explore memory through the act of sewing, which transforms into a medium of her approach. The artist conveys an ongoing inner dialogue that is extended to the viewer as a reflection of Baser’s own inner environment. The works deliver a positive impulset; a way to purify and to heal herself, rather than a confrontation. .. The viewer receives a chance to sew his/her own thread by experiencing Neslihan Baser’s inner journey through her practice.

1 BOURGEOIS, Louise, BERNADAC, Marie- Laure, et OBRIST, Hans Ulrich. Destruction of the Father Reconstruction of the Father: Writings and Interviews, 1923-1997. MIT Press, 1998.

2 DILTHEY, Wilhelm, MESURE, Sylvie, et COHN, Danièle. Ecrits d’esthétique; suivi de La naissance de l’herméneutique. Les Ed. du Cerf, 1995,

Fiona Vilmer, 2018 ( from exhibition book )

Hearing the healing voice 

What distinguishes Neslihan from other artists who work with similar materials and techniques is her undertaking of the recollection and contemplation of positive childhood memories as a method for healing. Neslihan focuses on her own imprinted memories rather than the stories of the fabrics of different textures and shades, used in her works. Interpreting the feelings evoked by these memories, and therefore healing is only possible through the embroidery on the fabrics. This practice embellished by symbols of Shamanic drums and clothing, is nourished by familiar faith tales.

Instead of using pure contemporary images, she follows a personal path and brings together the motifs she inherited from her grandmother, with Anatolian motifs that she uses without distorting their traditional structure. The installation entitled From one thought to another; she gave it to me, and I give it to you, is made up of surrounding motifs symbolizing fertility, mother nature, the act of creation, and the unity of the universe from the wall paintings of Çatalhöyük, and on the inside, motifs that symbolize “life” in general, that her grandmother used to embroider at the study of their house on the plateaus of Mount Taurus. Neslihan later discovers the healing effect of these images that she’s acquainted with from her childhood. Both her own design, and the motifs she gives reference to, always serve a purpose, or provide an answer as if they ful ll spiritual needs or address aesthetic concerns. We shall move on to the path opening to Neslihan’s current practice from the visual synergy and the strong ties with the traditional in the work From one thought to another; she gave it to me, and I give it to you.

Embroidery, commonly reflected on the art practices from the standpoint of its relationship with feminist art history, points the viewers a new perspective in Neslihan’s works. Instead of fighting with history at the front that riots, avenges, and criticizes the male-dominated system on gender roles; her works make an effort to embrace history at its best and understand it with great eagerness. During her trip to Anatolia for her pattern research, acquaintances that are made by Neslihan were only about the way of the transfer of production and tradition, and solely focus on the healing dimension of it.

On the other side, to Neslihan, the act of embroidering is like a mantra repeating to organize individual stories by piercing a surface and arriving on the other side, and then coming back to the initial without the trouble to represent here and there, there and back, death and rebirth.

There is a refreshing space in Neslihan’s works, created upon long investigations and deep reckoning reigns. The tranquil, and the adequately long decision processes trigger the moments of balance that distinguish them. Hearing the healing voice, coming from the past and transferred to the viewers by the artist, only becomes possible by putting away the ingenuity of the figural perception, and covering a distance away from the concept of time.

Merve Akar Akgün, 2018 ( from exhibition book )