Haziran

ARTIST'S STATEMENT: 

"Haziran" is a work made in Istanbul, during the eponymous month of June, 2011 (haziran is Turkish for June) when I was undertaking an artist's residency at Caravansarai. The motif is a 19th century Kutahya tile design, seen at the Pera Museum in Istanbul, and copied on-site.

I then decided to make a hand-painted "tile" for every day of my stay in Istanbul, in what became a daily and meditative practice, echoing (if very faintly) the original tile-painter and their daily and repetitive labours. Happily, June has 30 days, which allowed "Haziran" to become a 5 x 6 grid of paper "tiles", each one labelled with the day (in Turkish) and date. The "tile" nature of the work also allowed easy packing into a suitcase for transport back to Australia.

Tim Craker, 2011