My father was born in the Kurdish region of Turkey. The Kurdish language was banned in Turkey until 1991. Kurdish culture and sovereignty is still taboo. In this project, I unite my love of language and Sufism by using Kurdish in a series of poems which have been transcribed on the body. In mystic practice, the body is a site of paradox, used to transcend itself. In some Sufi thought the body is a page in the divine text of the cosmos. Photographer Sudeep Lingamneni recorded the process of transcribing the finished product and the final erasing of the text from my body.
Alice Melike Ülgezer, poet and writer
More of photographer Sudeep Lingamneni’s work can be seen at sudeeplingamneni.com
