Asli Hatipoglu

Bombyx Mori 

The TextielMuseum asked Turkish artist Asli Hatipoglu to develop work for the ‘Makers on materials’ exhibition. She researched the history of silkworm cultivation in Kozahan, once an important stop on Turkey’s Silk Road. She spoke to spinners and dye experts about the disappearance of local silk production and learned about the evolution of the domesticated silkworm and silk moth Bombyx mori. This species is now bred solely to maximise silk production for human use.

Hatipoglu created an installation in which works woven, knitted and embroidered with silk interact with films and projections. These show the life behind this valuable material. For instance, a large woven silk tapestry with grid lines and eggs woven with glow-in-the-dark yarn serves as a projection screen for a film about the life cycle of a silk moth. Each rectangle contains the number of eggs and the amount of silk that one Bombyx mori can produce. In the artistic film ‘Sēres’, which provides more context about silk production, three works are used as props or costumes. The samples for this project were made using an alternative, non-silk yarn wherever possible out of respect for the material.

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Photos by Josefina Eikenaar, Maria van der Heyden, Roos Pierson and Geisje van der Linden commissioned by TextielMuseum