The document discusses an art project exploring cultural hybridity and identity. It includes studies of natural forms from a trip to Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire, England. The artist created artworks mixing Kurdish traditional patterns with the British Union Jack to represent their mixed Kurdish and British cultural identity and the complex relationship between the two cultures. Some could view this as controversial given the British Empire's historic oppression of Kurdish people. However, the artist sees it as a form of activist art addressing cultural power structures.

2. A site specific project, proposed for the marketplace brief, communicating the
problem of gentrification in predominantly ethnic areas using politicized pattern
and typography.

4. Paper maquettes based on studies and photography from Brimham Rocks.

5. The piece above is called “The Jungle”, originating
from a series of sketches made from a trip to Brimham
rocks, exploring the natural forms around us and
translating into artwork restricted to just white paper.
Analytical study based on ‘The Jungle’.

6. Expressing the cultural hybridity that humans share through a series of layered
photomontage and translated into acrylic paintings.

9. Observation studies.

12. Studies based on black and white a5 series, exploring addition and multiplication processes

13. Final piece communicating abstraction through the process of addition
and multiplication.

14. Visualizing my traditional pattern
experiments into a bus stop,
communicating the idea of a new
colourful and exciting way of
public transport.

15. Mixed media collection of artworks exploring Kurdish traditional pattern, traditional Ottoman pattern.

16. 15 seconds, 30 seconds and 30
minutes life drawings.
Collaged life drawings responding to the
theme of ‘more’.

17. Studies from Hagia
Sophia and a house
in Istanbul.

18. Exploring my hybrid identity and the relationship between the British and Kurdish through a reinvented Union Jack
using traditional Kurdish imagery and patterns.

19. Modernised and politicized pattern communicating the relationship of Britain/Kurdistan and my identity.

20. What is my cultural identity and how does it reflect in my artwork?
Provocation- Whether you like it or not you are a cultural hybrid.
I feel I identify with the notion of cultural hybridity as my mum is English and my dad is Kurdish, but the family on
my dad’s side lives in Turkey, speaks Turkish and engages in Turkish culture, as do I.
In the past year or so I’ve started to research into my identity and practitioners doing the same, expressing their
crossed cultures and the problems they face with it. My collaged and layered artworks have begun to reflect on
who I am. Whether we choose to engage and experience that part of us or not, it’s still a huge part of our identities
and something we can never really escape- which is why so many artists choose to be inspired by this.
I do think that our nationality and culture are forced on to us very early on though, fill out any form in your lifetime
and you will be asked where you’re from. This is also prevalent in the art community as I’ve always been
encouraged to make art based on my culture and identity. Personally, I’ve always appreciated it as I love how it’s
a part of my practice but if you’re not interested in that part of yourself or don’t want to make art inspired from it, I
can see why it would feel forced.
There are different types of cultural focused art, one of them being indigenous. Kurdish people are indigenous
people and are native to the mountainous regions of Kurdistan in West Asia. My practice has become more
indigenous over time, when I first delved into Turkish/Kurdish art I was using books, ceramics and textiles, also
using what little traditional scarves and bowls that had been gifted. Looking back it did feel a little unauthentic as
I’d not visited Turkey in a few years because of Covid and never stepped foot in Kurdistan - who was I to make art
based on places and culture I’d not experienced yet?

21. In 2022 June- August I went travelling across Turkey, learning lots of the language, experiencing Kurdish food,
people and even a traditional wedding. When I came home, I was so inspired and excited to create and put my
take on it.
The contrary idea to indigenous art is the notion that we have an international identity. The clothes I wear,
people I talk to and places I visit are from hundreds of different places and it reflects in my work. I used to take
inspiration from the Renaissance, then the architectural designs of Gaudi. I also like the colours of the early
surreal/abstract art movement in Mexico. So, without even thinking about it my work also becomes this cultural
hybrid, and your art is usually reflection of yourself.
In conclusion, I don’t think we are influenced by one culture when most cultures are built from each other.
Without even trying to, you and the work you create becomes a hybrid of everything you've seen online,
everyone you've met, the places you’ve been and the people you take inspiration from. The connections are
too complex. Identity is inevitably complex.

22. Provocation: This is a political pattern that some could see as controversial.
This is an artwork I made in 2022, expressing the complicated history of Britain and Kurdistan and my hybrid
identity, using modernised traditional Kurdish pattern and the British flag. I reinvented the flag to represent the
complicated identity I have. I was inspired by gifted scarves and textiles that include Kurdish pattern and images
of the Shameran, the goddess of wisdom and guardian of secrets in Kurdish Mythology, her pictures are
traditionally hung on the bedroom walls of Kurdish girls, in a way, this is almost a flag. Through experimentation
with colour and layout I ended with my final piece, It’s an acrylic painted canvas with bead and flower
embellishments to link back to the textiles and beading in Kurdish craft.
The political
pattern
-acrylic on
canvas
-2022
Kurdish textile and mythology.

23. Some could argue that to mix an extreme historic oppressor with an oppressed minority is quite controversial as
the British Empire has done a lot of damage to the middle East. It started in the late 1500s under Queen
Elizabeth I, by 1913 the empire had grown to rule power 400 million people. Due to their desire to grow colonies
and increase trade, they put millions of people through suffering, causing famines across India, abandoning the
Irish in the Potato famine, and being a huge power within the slave trade. The Kurdish people are an Iranian
ethnic group native to the mountainous regions of Kurdistan in West Asia, with 25-35 million people spanning
across Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Armenia. The Kurds of Iraq came under British colonial rule after the defeat
of the Ottoman empire in 1918. In hopes for independence, Kurdish leaders launched series of rebellions against
the British and subsequent Iraqi rule. Britain and Iraq exploited the Kurds to occupy Iraq, leaving the Kurds to
suffering and oppression within their habitats- suffering that is still ongoing today.
You could understand why some people would think this is controversial, to mix traditional and oppressed artwork
with a flag of huge power and dislike from many groups and countries across the world. “Depending on where
they fly, flags can represent freedom, control, safety or danger”- Iman Ghosh, author and visual capitalist. In my
opinion, the British flag has been depicted as all 4 of those words. However,
others could see this as a part of activism and a way of expressing one’s identity. To express this cross identity
and sensitive relationship I used a political pattern, something that forms under activist art. The aim of activist art
is to be a form of social currency and justice, to address cultural power structures instead of directly representing
or describing them. It's about empowering individuals and communities. Overall, I think
this could be seen as controversial by traditional Kurdish people, and rightly so.
Iraqi Kurdistan profile (2018) BBC News. BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28147263 (Accessed: January 31,
2023).
Tate (no date) Activist art, Activist Art. Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/activist-art (Accessed: January 31, 2023).