DAMLA TAMER
A triangular oya needle lace with black netting and red pepper style decorative embroidery details adorning the outer edges
Oya is a type of needle lace that is used in many parts of Anatolia to decorate the edges of head scarves worn by women. The rich iconography of oya has an interrelation with language; red hot peppers, like the ones that grew in the Commons Garden for instance, are said to convey conflict, dissension and frustration that cannot be spoken of. This work brings together the hot pepper and mountain motifs together to create an unusually large (20 x 16") oya composition as part of a series of works that intertwines textual and textural components.
Damla Tamer ↗ (born 1986 in Istanbul, Turkey) is an artist and educator living on the unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh territories. Her work has been the focus of solo exhibitions at Darling Foundry (Montreal, 2013) and the Fifty Fifty Arts Collective (Victoria, 2018), included in The Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom at the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver, 2020), and featured on the cover of Capilano Review (3.42: Translingual). Damla Tamer is a founding member of the artist mothers collective A.M. (Art Mamas) and a past member of the now in hiatus artist-run Dynamo Arts Association. She serves in various grassroots advocacy groups, including the Equity and Belonging Platform of False Creek South, which aims to facilitate equitable access to co-operative housing. She teaches at the University of British Columbia and Emily Carr University of Art+Design.