Dilay Kocogullari '19 receives 2019 MFA Award

"Dilay Kocogullari uses living organisms as art material to explore current health and social justice issues, ranging from nutrition to infant coronary disease and femicide. She was born in Turkey, where she received a B.A. in Biology from the University of Osmangazi a B.A. in Plastic Arts from Yeditepe University, and an M.A. in Painting from Onsekiz Mart University. After teaching art and art history at universities in Turkey for five years, she moved to the U.S., where she is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Intermedia & Digital Arts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).⠀

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Dilay Kocogullari’s thesis installation "Toward the Healing of Souls: Crocheting, Collaborating, and Commemorating" comprises 300 ovary-shaped crocheted pouches, filled with living grass and hanging from the ceiling – is a memorial to the increasing number of women murdered in her home country, Turkey. On the walls appear videos of 70 participants living in America and Turkey who helped crochet the pouches in a collaborative act of resistance to femicide." (sourced from CADVC) 

See documentation of the exhibit on Instagram @imda.umbc