Üç Ruh / Three Spirits
Meltem Şahin, Turkey
Description
Medium: Video, fabric, synthetic braids
Dimensions: Variable
In Collaboration with
Participants: Brigitte Lopez, Paloma, Chancey, Amiel Cofeli, Virginia Romina Chavez, Taninli Wright, Linden, Lorelei Williams, Saiyaka, Sarah Devries, Marlene, Melissa Vera, Aunty Carrie Phillip, Rosa Dan, Judith Camacho Campoy, Skally Heinz
Butterflies in Spirit
Music and sound design: Toni-Leah C. Yake
Braids: Crystal Azak
Curator: Natalia Lebedinskaia
Logistics: Britany Lawrence
Project advisor: Laura Barron
Artist Assistant and Project Photographer: Talya Florian
Üç Ruh / Three Spirits
This piece is the second in a series of digital carpets, drawing inspiration from women who have historically woven their secrets into carpets, crafting hidden languages of resilience and resistance. While the first piece emerged from narrating the story of the physical and psychological abuse I endured fourteen years ago, this second work emerges from a collective process of workshops with Indigenous and IBPOC women and 2-Spirit participants who are either survivors of violence or relatives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2-Spirit people (MMIWG2ST).
Over four sessions, seventeen participants came together to transform grief into movement and memory into connection. Guided by the archetypes of the Life-Giver, Weaver, and Warrior, they created and embodied their own spirits through writing, drawing, and dance.
Each archetype carries a distinct role:
The Life-Givers at the center hold the roots and memory of the land. They are the ancestors, the original givers of life, and the carriers of the continuity of their lineage.
Surrounding them, the Weavers are storytellers and living bridges, threading past into present, and mending what has been broken.
Along the outer edge, the Warriors face outwards as protectors and defenders, ensuring survival and justice for future generations.
Red is a color believed to be the only one visible to the spirit world. In the dresses worn by the women, it also honors artist Jaime Black, whose REDress Project brought national attention to the ongoing crisis of MMIWG2ST. The red dress has become symbolic with the global movement to raise awareness of this crisis in Canada, and has been gaining international attention through the work of groups such as Butterflies in Spirit, who dance to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and LGBTQQIA+ across Canada and the Disappeared in Latin America.
The video is projected onto a hanging carpet, its braided fringe extending outward. The carpet is a language: the motif holds stories, and its braids act as threads of protection. In Residential Schools, children’s braids were cut as acts of forced assimilation; in my culture in Türkiye, braids serve as talismans against evil. Here, braiding is both remembrance and resistance; a gesture of protection and care.
Drawing from ecofeminist thought, my project is created in recognition that the exploitation of nature and the oppression of women stem from the same colonial and patriarchal roots. This piece reflects on the race-based genocide and gendered colonization that continue to affect communities around the world, expanding into the broader context of violence against land, water, and women.
Üç Ruh / Three Spirits transforms the idea of healing through movement into a collective form: a woven monument of empowerment, kinship, and resilience. A living carpet of spirits, it honours those who are still missing and those who continue to fight for them.
