WEAVING
Büşra Kayıkçı
In the words of the artists:
When I first began exploring motifs for this project, the dragon immediately caught my attention. Unlike many other patterns with fixed meanings, its meaning changes depending on its placement on a carpet: if a woman wove a dragon on the side of a carpet, it meant she was struggling with an enemy outside her family; if she wove it inside, it meant the enemy was within.
The idea that a motif could serve as a kind of location marker - almost like signaling one's internal or external battles - felt fascinating to me. It made me think about the nature of struggle itself. In Sufi philosophy, the greatest struggle is not the one we wage against external forces, but the one we wage from within - against our own ego, desires and fears. This idea resonated deeply with me as I composed this piece. Where is the real dragon? Is it an external force, an obstacle in the world around us? Or is it something we carry from within?
Ultimately, events in our lives gain meaning based on how we respond to them. The way we respond determines where we place them in our personal landscape: whether we see them as threats, lessons or even opportunities. This piece was written while reflecting on these ideas, examining the tension between inner and outer struggles and the ever-shifting boundaries between them.
