Nurgül Rodriguez settled in Calgary, Alberta in 2009, after nomadic years of living in Turkey, U.S.A., Spain with her family. She holds a BFA from Dokuz Eylul Univesity in 1999 and MFA form the University of Calgary in 2017. She has an active individual practice of disciplines and media including porcelain, installation, handmade paper, printmaking, three-dimensional pieces, and more recently socially engaged and collaborative projects. Her work is social, political and personal with a focus on issues of immigration, diasporas, borders and cultures – representation of multiculturalism in Canada. She explores becoming a diasporic individual during identity formation within a new culture. She currently lives in Calgary making, writing, teaching, collaborating and always learning.
Image: Nurgül Rodriguez, hundreds of THEM, 2018-19, site-specific installation, Medalta Hive Kiln #2, 2018. Photo: Brian Arroyo.
Image description: A photograph of part of a large, round kiln room made of large yellow-grey bricks with wide cylindrical columns and a floor made of wooden boards. Hundreds of white glazed porcelain bowls sit on the floor, grouped in the foreground and background, as well as in between and around the columns.
Rodriguez reflects on remediation as a reparative process in connection with themes of identity, place, displacement, and belonging. Her research examines Canadian immigration polices and their social, political and cultural impacts. Through text-based works, she explores how language can form and shape immigrant and diasporic bodies and experiences. Working with various processes including body casting, her methods record, map, and share experiences of migration, immigration, and displacement.
Images: Nurgül Rodriguez, "Letter for Home", 2020. As part of "Landed", exhibition at the Esplanade. Photo: Courtesy the artist. Image description: A photograph of a white cloth printed with black text pinned on a white wall. The text reads: IMMIGRANT MOTHERS NEWCOMER FATHERS HYPHENATED DAUGHTERS NON-CITIZENS SONS NEWCOMER BROTHERS OUTSIDER SISTERS EXPATRIATE UNCLES EMIGRANT AUNTS DISPLACED GRANDPARENTS AND CHILDREN. On the floor are nine pairs of shoes made of paper in a range of colours.
Image description: A photograph of two pairs of shoes on a grey floor. The front of the shoes are pointed towards a wall, just a few inches away. The shoes are made of orange and brown coloured paper with handwriting in black ink.