Body is a Pattern

“Body is a Pattern” begins with motifs drawn from Anatolian kilim traditions and their use of pattern as a visual language. Batur works with these existing forms alongside motifs of her own, allowing traditional symbols and bodily shapes to appear within the same surface.

The motifs are stitched onto hand-dyed cotton. During the dyeing process, colour moves downward through the fabric and leaves visible traces of its movement. Some motifs remain close to traditional forms, while others shift towards intimate anatomical shapes, making the distinction between symbol and body increasingly uncertain.

Human hair extends from the lower edge of the textile. Its physical presence interrupts the patterned surface, bringing something directly from the body into a work in which the body has otherwise appeared through abstraction and symbol. The hair hangs beyond the fabric, continuing past the boundary of the textile.

Through this movement between motif, material, and bodily trace, “Body is a Pattern” considers how the body can enter an existing visual language while altering its forms. Pattern becomes something that can be inherited, repeated, and changed, carrying cultural memory alongside the presence of an individual body.