I Have Measured Out My Life With Coffee Spoons

Interview with Ieva Kotryna Ski

Almost two months after the end of the Mahalla Festival, we had the opportunity to speak with Ieva Kotryna Ski, one of the artists who was invited through the MagicCarpets platform to the Mahalla Festival under the title Midas Touch. We delved deeper into her artwork and her experience at the festival. Firstly, we asked her about her collaboration with the festival, her creative process, and her relationship with the Büyük Valide Han environment. We also talked about her collaboration with the artisans and how this had influenced her artistic vision.  Finally, we discussed her expectations of Istanbul and the festival space.

Could you please introduce yourself and describe your approach as an artist?

“I mostly work with videos, which are always a base for me. However, lately I have started to creating installations that sometimes involve objects or prints. The topics of my works vary quite a bit, ranging from geology and materiality itself to digital images and the materiality of them. I’m more involved with installations and fine arts in the contemporary art scene, as there seems to be more flexibility.”

 

You get involved into the Mahalla Festival through the Magic Carpet platform. How did this collaboration develop?

“MagicCarpet and its partner organisations had my portfolio. I was contacted by the Mahalla Festival because they had chosen me to be invited to the festival, which made me very happy. I was also very curious to see Istanbul and attend the festival. I’ve always wanted to go there, and this time I had the opportunity to work there and meet new people, rather than just being a tourist.”

Where did the initial idea for your artistic project come from? Did you arrive in Istanbul with a clear concept in mind, or did it develop during your stay?

“Before coming to Istanbul, I started to reflect on things and read about the city, but I didn’t have any precise ideas because I really wanted to be inspired by the city itself. I felt that that is what Mahalla Festival is about: working with the influences of the space and of the surroundings. So, I faced quite a challenge because in my practice projects take quite a while, especially videos, which involve a long process from research to production. It was challenging to know that I wouldn’t have much time. When I arrived, I only had two weeks before the festival began, which was short.”

Watching the Water

“Prior to coming, I started thinking about how to prepare myself. One of the things that I decided was that I wanted to film something, but I knew I didn’t want to bring my big camera, because it would be too rushed. I remembered doing projects before using a defective HTC phone – all HCT on this series have this issue, not just mine – when filming in low light conditions, it starts producing purple, blue and pink colours, and it changes by itself. I had already done a project with this phone in Taiwan, called “Radiant Energy”.

Firstly, it’s a phone, so it’s not a huge equipment and it’s easy to carry around. Another thing I like is that when you film with it, the technology starts creating a certain kind of atmosphere. Every time you film, there is a distance between you and the screen, but with this glitched phone, the space is transformed so much that it gives you more distance. I felt I don’t know much about Istanbul or local issues, it’s a complex city, so I thought it would be nice to create a kind of a shield where I would be an observer, but one that goes through this filter of deformed camera images. This was one of my ideas before I came here: an interesting way to capture surroundings.

As for what to film, I thought a lot about the Bosporus trade, which is a big topic. But when I was walking around, I realised that what I really like was the moment when people were just sitting by the bay, watching at the water. In that moment, we all just got so excited and passionate about doing nothing but watching the water. That’s the moment when people gather to watch the sunset.”

Disrupted Time

“I knew where the festival was going to take place: at the Büyük Valide Han, where many craftsmen work. This was something less familiar for me and with my practice, I’ve never worked on topics of craftsmanship or with objects that require it. I thought it would be nice to do something with the people there and immerse myself more, it would be a new experience for me.

What is also great about the residency is that you sometimes discover new things and try practices out of your comfort zone. One thing I knew was that many people in the Han worked with metal. And I don’t know why, but before coming here, I had the idea of using a spoon; Things started to come together around the theme of time, which is very abstract and broad.

During the summer, I was reading the book “On the Calculation of Volume” by the Danish author Solvej Balle. It’s about a woman who is stuck in a time loop, repeating the same day repeatedly. She knows that everyone else is also repeating their days, but they are unaware of it, whereas she is conscious of it.

It contains reflections on the passage of time and how we relate to it. This idea of how we understand and experience the passage of time started to develop in my mind. Through a friend I discovered the book by Tanpınar “The Time Regulation Institute”, which was connected to this idea. The title itself and the circumstances in which it was written, when Atatürk changed the time from Ottoman Empire time to Western time and westernised it, tells us a lot about the process Turkey went through.

This is a clash between Western culture and ideas, and the Ottoman Empire heritage and what it did for its people. Tanpınar discusses this clash of ideas and the sense of disorientation it creates. I found the idea of time as a means of control fascinating. However, this is an illusion because you cannot control time by changing the clock. The spoon comes from an accidental lecture of T.S. Eliot’s poems, in which a verse is quoted: “I have Measured Out My Life with Coffee Spoons”, which talks about how life goes with very simple daily activities. Time passes while we are not even noticing, while we are doing very simple, mindless activities. All these little things add up, and I thought it would be interesting to explore. This part whit the spoon really required craftmanship, so I collaborated with Mert from the Han to create this very bright spoon. Starting with the idea of the Midas Touch, I wanted a highly polished spoon with a shine. This clashes with the idea of the phone being super trashy and defective, yet the craftsmanship is perfect. I also bent the spoon. This makes you think about a lot of things, such as time, and how defacing something familiar can suddenly make it seem strange, and how your relationship with it changes when you alter its form slightly.”

Was It your decision to collaborate with Mert – a designer based in the Han?

“Yes, he was very much part of the Mahalla Festival. He is a designer and gave us the venue. He was the closest connection to the Han among all the people who work there. He also works with metals. I met him there, talked to him about the idea and he was very supportive. It was my idea, but we did it together. I designed and drew it, and I oversaw the process. “Every step of making the spoon happened in the Han. For example, the casting took place next door to the exhibition space.”

I guess capturing the vibe and experience of Büyük Valide Han is something you could not imagine from the outside, it should have been difficult.

“Yes, when you work there, and do installations, it can be sometimes overwhelming because the space already has a strong presence. It is always difficult to know how you’re going to interact with the space and how you’re going to work in it. It wasn’t easy.”

How satisfied are you with your role in the festival? Could have been improved or done differently?

“I am happy with how everything turned out, and with our collaboration with Mert. It was a pleasure to work with him.

I wish we had more time to invest in the space, for example a whole month for production, as this would allow us to delve deeper.”

Is there anything else that you felt was missing, or anything else that you would have liked to explore further?

“The city itself is so huge and full of everything that the month is not enough to see and experience it all. Now, speaking from the perspective of someone who wants to explore the culture more, there is still so much to see and to discover. Another nice part of the residency was that it coincided with the 18^th Istanbul Biennale. I really loved meeting the people from different spaces and learning more about the art scene in Istanbul and Turkey, as I didn’t know much beforehand.”

Did the city of Istanbul and the Büyük Valide Han meet your expectations if you had any?

“To be honest, I didn’t have many expectations of the Büyük Valide Han because it was somethings I did not know at all. Regarding the city, I read Orhan Pamuk’s “Istanbul”, so I had a strong image of the city from that. He wrote about Istanbul from his childhood until now. The period he wrote most about was when the city was less populated, and he talked a lot about abandoned houses and districts. When I came to Istanbul, it was very different from the book. Istiklal Street is full of people, shops and malls – in general, there are a lot of people – but I could still see what he mentioned in some spaces. I had some expectations based on his melancholic and romantic book.

I also remember that I first read from Pamuk when I was a teenager and living in Vilnius. I remember thinking that, despite the differences in culture, there were some similarities between Vilnius and Istanbul, and my mom felt the same way. It felt like I was going somewhere that wasn’t totally unfamiliar to me. Despite the cultural differences, you can still find common ground. I found that interesting, this realization of how much you are stranger and how much you are not.

The difference between Istanbul and Vilnius is more about how they make you feel. The architecture is very different, but Vilnius is especially like how it used to be when I was a kid, and how it has changed so quickly over the years with new developments. The city has started to lose its old character; there are lots of old and abandoned houses and places. Turkish history is very different; it was an empire and we were occupied, but we both experiences a period of westernisation. We became independent and tried to become as European as possible, but we still have some kind of heritage from the past: lots of abandoned houses, and we are trying to build something new. I feel this is a point at which the two cities are connected.

Talking about Turkish culture, people spend a lot of time sitting and drinking coffee or tea while letting the time pass by. I thought this was quite ironic because my work reflects a lot this stopping time and how we rush all the time, which causes us to become confused. Then I had to work that quite quickly. It is a bit of a clash, but it is interesting.”