Queer Dowry

2022

On view at Small Arms Inspection Building as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art (2022).
Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art
Photo: Toni Hafkenscheid.



Blanket made with my mother from wash clothes made by my grandmother (anne, Dilara Akay and anneanne Özden Yürektürk)
Brother and father home textile linen table settings (ağabey, Tahir Akay, baba Abdullah Akay)
Cotton blanket from Dalaman, Turkey
David People t-shirt by my mother and father
Doilies from the bazaar
Doily tablecloth from my mothers dowry
Embroidered tablecloth made by my great grandmother for my grandmothers dowry (babaanne, Nurten Akay, babaannemin annesi, Saniye Akçan)
Fabric used in Ghost Spring exhibition with my mother in 2018
Flower and wheat embroidered prayer mat from anneanne’s dowry
Flower pillow by anneanne
Ghost Spring red flag
Great uncle’s circumcision bib with blood (annemin dayısı, Tamer Özgiray)
Hasyün wool tank top
Karatepe kilim from Adana, Turkey gifted to my mothers dowry from my babaanne
Kilim braid from Şerefler, Muğla, Turkey
Kilim pillow
Kitchen rag from Don’t Argue Pizzeria
Kitchen rag from Grapes and Soda
Knitting of corn or white eggplant or loofa plant with a story I don’t remember
Linen samples from Hayaka fabrics, linen company of my father
Linen from Hayaka Fabrics used as tablecloth at Garden Don’t Care
Manifatura beach towel by Serdar Gizer and Başak Ağaoğlu
Metal embroidery from great grandmother (babamın babaannesi, Nakiye Akay)| My mother can’t remember the story of this weaving
Napkin gift from Kaspar Feyrer
Ölü örtüsü (corpse cover) kilim weaving from Bodrum, Muğla, Turkey
Pillow cases from my father and brothers home textile company
Pillow fabric gifted by my babaanne
Pillow from my aunt (hala, Saniye “Naniş” Demirel)
Pillowcase from my bed in Karataş, Adana, Turkey
Pink silk embroidery from my mothers dowry, from anneanne’s dowry
Quilts by great aunt (annemin halası, İffet Yoldaş)
Rag from India
Rag from Istanbul
Rag from Japan
Rag rug with Mickey Mouse t-shirts from Dalaman, Muğla, Turkey
Raw silk fabric from my father
Rescued t-shirt from the road, Quadra Island, BC
Scarf I knit at age 9 with Gabriella’s help
Set of t-shirt and pants dyed with with onion skin, cochineal, logwood, coreopsis, indigo, walnut, mary gold, madder root,
Silk ribbons
Stolen hammam towel
Studio rags
Sümerbank pillow from great aunt (annemin halası, İffet Yoldaş)
Tablecloth with Türk işi embroidery, from great grandmother to anneanne to mother (annemin anneannesi, Naime Özgiray)
Tea towel weavings by Anne Low with fathers linen dyed with madder and indigo
Tulip pillow from anneanne
Violet pillow from great aunt (babamın halası, Sıdıka Akman)
Wash clothes from babaanne
Weavings from Ödemiş, İzmir, Turkey
Weavings from Üzümlü, Muğla, Turkey
Wool yarn from old sweaters
Yazma head scarf from Burcu Özdemir
Thank you to all of the anonymous weavers, factory workers, embroiders, farmers and field workers.

Materials
Adana burma
Aluminum tray
Beveled spatula
Blown glass jars
Boiled linseed oil
Brass handle
Broom
Cabinet hardware
Cambros
Cardboard
Carnations
Carol Delany, The Seed and the Soil
Cedar and douglas fir dowry chest
Ceramic tableware
Circumcission gold
Citric acid
Coat hooks
Coffee
Colchicine
Copper
Copper pots
Cotton from Adana, Turkey
Cotton seeds
Chrysanthemums
Cumin
Cutting board
Dehydrated apples
Dehydrated tangerine peels
Dolma carving tool
Dough scraper
Dried flowers
Duck earrings gift of Salem Sharp
Einkorn flour
Einkorn wheat berries
Estradiol
Evil eye beads
Fatima’s hand keychain
Grain scoop
Green lentils
Ibuprofen
Knives
Lead
Making Levantine Cuisine edited by Anny Gaul, Graham Auman Pitts, and Vicki Valosik
Mint
Mixing bowl
Money (Turkish Lira and Canadian Dollar)
Mountain tea
Nomads, migrants and cotton in the eastern Mediterranean by Meltem Toksöz
Oil pastel
Oklava (rolling pin)
Pan
Pearls
Pickling lime
Pine door
Plaster reliefs from Anatolian kilim motifs
Plastic bags
Plastic clothes pins
Plastic to go containers
Plywood
Polyester ribbon
Ratchet straps
Recipe book of babaanne
Red pepper flakes
Ring and earring gift of VB
Rose water
Safety pin
Saj (cowboy wok)
Salt
Sesame
Sifted red spring flour
Silk ribbon
Silk thread
Silver
Skillet
Soap
Spatula
Spironolacton
Spoon
Stickers
Strainer
Studio mint tea
Suffolk wool from Alberta
Sumac
Sunflower seeds
Tarsus burma
Tea glass set
Tea spoon
Tea strainer
Terra cotta turkish coffee pots
Terrazio stone washed on the beach in Karataş, Adana
The Abolitionist Horizon by
The Horrors of Adana by Bedross der Matossian
The Mountains are Ours by Christopher Gratien
The Unsettled Plain by Christopher Gratien
Turkish black tea
Watercolours
What Happened in Adana in April 1909? by Tetsuya Sahara
Wheat grown in an empty lot in spring/summer 2021
Wood carvings from Dalaman, Muğla, Turkey
Wood clothes pins
Wood mortar and pestle for garlic from babaanne
Yaşar Kemal, İnce Memed (Memed my hawk)
Yoga blanket
Yoga blocks
Yoga bolster
Yoga bolster from old t-shirts
Yoga mat
Şahmeran painting from acrylic paint, plexiglass, wood and glass
Dimensions variable