Artist Date | The edge of expression

On the Southwestern edge of Sardinia, in the quiet geometry of a small town museum, the MACC di Calasetta, I encountered the work of Zehra Doğan: art born in confinement. With unhurried time to absorb the work, I eagerly read the story of this passionate artist.

Imprisoned for her beliefs in a culture that does not respect them, the artist found herself without materials to express herself. Faced with walls and rules and scarcity, Doğan made works using whatever she could find to make her marks: ashes, blood, tea, and occasionally a pen. Her canvas? A scrap of bedding, used wrappers. Each piece was a plain declaration that when the outer world narrows, the inner world widens—and that the artist must create. The works themselves express defiance, yet also unflagging hope.

Most of us live in prisons of our own making, routines that calcify, fears that harden into habit. We may not be bound by bars, but we are often contained by the small, polite agreements we make with our daily lives. Doğan’s work insists on something simple and radical: the creative urge does not ask for permission.

I left the museum with resolve: refuse self-imposed incarcerations. Make small things for no audience, practice an unadvertised passion – and use whatever materials are around.

Kudos to Zehra Doğan for showing us how imagination survives the harshest conditions.