ALL WE ARE SAYING, IS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE 

On an idyllic beach in Izmir, at a symposium by the sea, I built a totem of small protections. Each module carries a charm from Turkey or India, and together they stand like a prayer made of clay. The totem belongs to my Talisman series, which I have been growing across installations for several years.

The lowest panel holds a Rangoli pattern, the sacred geometry drawn with rice flour at the threshold of homes in parts of India to welcome guests and keep trouble at bay. Around it a peace symbol is incised, and beside it runs John Lennon's line in Turkish, "Barışa bir şans ver", ....or, "give peace a chance." Above it, spiral paisley coils around a drum, and the evil eye watches from its side, as it has watched over doorways, boats and newborns across Turkey for centuries. Warli figures hold hands on the next vessel, tiny dancers from Indian folk art who remind us that a village is made of people moving together. The open vessel above them repeats Lennon's words in English. Said twice, in two scripts, the line shows that peace needs no translator. It is the one word everyone already understands, and it feels more urgent now, when so many borders are loud with conflict.

Higher, a ring of flowers holds 7 chilis and a lime, hung in both countries to turn away envy and bad luck. A metallic luster hilal crowns the stack, the Turkish crescent moon catching the light as the sky does at dusk.
All these symbols began as a small act of care. Someone drew the pattern at the door, someone hung the chili, someone painted the eye. In a time when it is easy to sort people by what divides them, this totem makes a quiet argument that fear and hope sound the same in every language.

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Made and fired in seven days at the 13th International Mehmet Nuri Göçen Foundation Symposium, Ismir, Turkey.