Pattern Matching, Blue

Nevin Aladağ’s practice, encompassing installations, sculptures, performances and videos, focuses on urban space, as well as ethnic, sexual and cultural identities. In her works, the artist explores issues such as modes of play and staging, and the traces of actions, along with the limits and politics of sculpture.

For her series "Pattern Matching", Aladağ creates hybrid objects and paintings by combining the popular American team sport of basketball with traditional Eastern motifs. The artist’s "Pattern Matching" series is portable basketball courts made of pieces of tufted and flat-woven carpets comprise. As the pieces of carpets are combined in adherence to the standard lines and proportions of a basketball court, the traditional patterns from different cultures are also removed from their original contexts and compositions to correspond with the formal order and rules of basketball. In this series, Aladağ draws attention to dualities such as global and local, traditional and contemporary, group play/performance and domestic privacy, as well as issues such as physical labour and the sports industry.