Sini Cloth

March 2026 - March 2027
BOLU, KASTAMONU

The name "Sini Cloth" comes from the textile printing culture, where fabric is printed using wooden molds. Widely found in Kastamonu and Bolu, sini cloths are not only functional household items—tablecloths—but also storytellers through the symbols embroidered on them. This project re-examines these cloths, shaped by women's production, in the context of social, ecological, and identity indicators; it explores the possibilities of looking at the narratives encoded in the cloths from different perspectives.

Each object on the cloths is woven with a distinct representational texture. Single or double deer symbolize peace and harmony, wheat represents abundance, and doves and other birds represent a sheltered space, all incorporated into historical narratives. The project proposes to consider, through the lens of sini cloths, whether these encodings retain their validity within today's social dynamics. Considering that, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) and agricultural reports, wheat production decreased from 21 million tons in 2020/21 to 18 million tons in 2024/25 due to drought and implemented policies, is it still possible to interpret wheat solely as a symbol of abundance? The question reveals the distance between the symbol and the material condition; the cultural weight that wheat carries as a symbol of abundance is re-examined in conjunction with the ecological and political tensions indicated by production data.

Sini Bezi, beyond being a printed image or a tablecloth, is a memory space where women from Bolu and Kastamonu have accumulated their personal testimonies. The project aims to make visible a polyphonic narrative by producing new wooden molds that rework this memory along political, ecological, and identity axes.

Burcu Günay

Burcu Günay attempts to read the narrative of social dynamics related to humanity and human life through plants, exploring new forms of narrative and representation through the connections they establish between memory, space, and cultural indicators. A single plant can be a narrator of social dynamics. For example, in 16th-century Holland, the most valuable flower was the White Flaming Tulip; considering its price was 5,500 Dutch florins, while the average weekly wage of a skilled worker was 2.8 florins, the speculative value of the flower reaching hundreds of times a worker's weekly wage shows that the painting of plants/flowers can be read as a field where class, desire, and economic relations are questioned. Furthermore, the concept of ethnobotany is part of my production process. Ethnobotany deals with how the plants used by the indigenous people in a region affect their lives. Plants, which touch upon fairy tales, magic, natural remedies, literature—in short, every aspect of life—are depicted not merely as motifs, but as indicators striving to circulate within historical, cultural, and economic relationships, through printmaking on raw canvas. Burcu Günay works in the Painting Department of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Düzce University.

Connections:

www.instagram.com/renknarbg

This page is published on 20 August 2026.