Hayv Kahraman
Generational Eyebrows, 2024
Oil and acrylic on linen
279.4 x 127 cm
110 x 50 in
110 x 50 in
Further images
Reflecting on her early experiences as an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, Hayv Kahraman’s new body of work examines the ways in which colonial practices in the field of botany continue...
Reflecting on her early experiences as an Iraqi refugee in Sweden, Hayv Kahraman’s new body of work examines the ways in which colonial practices in the field of botany continue to perpetuate hierarchical structures and gendered metaphors within the natural world and, by extension, sociopolitical contexts. The artist experiments with marbling her own handmade linen surfaces using the ebru technique, which translates as ‘the art of clouds’. Inhabiting their intentionally irregular landscapes, Kahraman’s defiantly anonymous female figures traverse and challenge grid-like systems designed to impose order and identification. In Kahraman’s hands, the technique of marbling becomes an act of defiance, a means of building alternative architectures of refuge and resilience.