ABOUT

 

Could you tell us your short story (your background, where do you live, how come you find yourself in Copenhagen, how do you work, details that you want us to know about you)?

​

Hi! Sure, that’s my pleasure. This is Mine Burckin.

I was born and grew up in Istanbul and I studied Art History at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. During my study I had lived in Lisbon for 6 months and while writing my thesis I had lived in Vilnius for a year. For now, I have been living in Copenhagen since 2018. I like to experience living in different cultures and push my boundaries further, even though I feel time to time uprooted. Maybe for this reason, I aim to create dialogue and intimacy on my work. I refer life events, myths, Mediterranean scenes to create warm feelings and sincerity between me, others and artwork.

 
How did you start making embroideries? How did you choose this medium?

​

I have started to make embroidery in 2015. I was looking for a way to express my thoughts most effectively. I have tried different techniques and ended up with embroidery. As a person who moves often, embroidery gives me the freedom to continue to work regardless of place, because materials are very suitable to carry. But most importantly, I have realized that mediums itself is a concept of my works. It is such a traditional and domestic method applied by women for years and with my contemporary approach, it is taken out of home and brought it to public space. Thus, it becomes a criticism of resistance to constraint of femineity. 

You are also drawing/painting on textile beside your embroideries. What is the reason behind that you are using textiles for your work instead of stretched canvas?

​

I love freedom more than perfection, and I believe there is no constraint at art but concept. I don't focus on much about the rules and how to things should have done. I either work on fabric or stretched canvas or combination of cardboard and fabric. This attitude is not only material usage but also my drawing style. I destroy rules of perspective and proportion on my drawings and recreate space to think and feel out of our habits/routines.
 

How do you choose the materials that you work with?

​

Thread, fabric and acrylic paint are my main materials. In addition I look around myself. For examples, during lockdown, I painted a lot of cardboard because of receiving my needs by shipping, or after giving a birth, I took photographs of my breastmilk strained on the objects around me. 

Practicality is very important to me while choosing the materials, I want to be able to carry them easily and work when I have a possibility. As additional materials using personal stuffs makes the artwork semi autobiographical and  a documentary of current time.

You are using a lot feminine figures and scenes from the Greek mythology on your works. What does it mean it you? What is the message that you want to give with these themes?

​

These incomplete or deconstructed women figures was my drawings after two times moving in two different countries. I wasn’t aware of my drawings (because I was totally lost) but then realized that they are profoundly representation of feeling uprooted and teared apart from not only the homeland but also myself. At that point, I was digging into Greek art and mythology unconsciously and reading philosophers such as Edward Said, Benjamin Walter and thinking about perception of home. In that period of my life, I have built a healthy relationship with being other in the group and these figures in mythological scenes are outcome of that feelings.

 
How does living abroad effected your creative process and inspirations?

​

Even though I feel stucked time to time, I am appreciated to living abroad. When you live in another culture, you always have to think. Even, while handling small errands or making a casual talk with your neighbor, they become a sociological analysis in your mind.

 
Living abroad, for a time now, what do you miss the more in Turkey?

​

Chaos, food, streets, aliveness, colorfulness and many more. 

Chaos was the big part of my life while I had been living in Istanbul. You know, when you are in extreme rush but you still have to wait for something, maybe an approval or a bus, which is not under your control and you just ended up reading a book. I guess, that kind of situations has a power to mature you spiritually.

Also Turkish cuisine,that I can’t get out of my head, is wide and vary, also delicious, from west to east and south to north. At that point my solution is learning how to cook.
 
How do you spend a day when you are creating?

I have two types of working day. One base on getting inspired an other one creating the work.

For the first one, I try to figure out what can effectively represent the thoughts which are significant. I read, listen, search and have a walk in nature. Sometimes, I meet with specific people to distinguish the matter. Then I start to write and draw, find the materials suit the work. I think, this part is more serious and harder comparing to the second part.

Process of the second part starts with good breakfast and I work until my back hurts. Here, physical effort get involved to the intellectual output. I lay my fabric down and I paint, embroidery one side to other. There are appropriate amounts of movement in that process.