Artist Christina Callaghan creates beautiful and ethereal artworks in watercolours and ink, her works are a place where reality meets imagination, influenced by folklore, philosophy, the natural world and the animal kingdom; you just can't help but get lost in them. Christina created three pieces of original art inspired by Mustang.
Named for the wild-horse-like power of the sisters, Mustang is a mixture of the director's (Deniz Gamze Ergüven) lived experiences and the realities of her mother and grandmother, growing up as women in Turkey.
The film was shot in Turkey with a budget of around £1 million, but had majority French financing and crew, and so was able to qualify as France’s Oscar nomination in Foreign Language film, though it lost out to Son of Saul, by László Nemes.
Interestingly, the film was on track to receive public funding from Turkey, but the Turkish Oscar committee ultimately decided against it. Whether this was due to the negative ways in which life for women in Turkey could be perceived is an unknown, but troubling possibility.
It is well documented that the film polarised opinion in Turkey; one critic said the film was “disturbingly Orientalist,” and others said it was tailored to Western tastes. On the other hand, it has received glowing reviews around the festival circuit and it continues to pick up fans around the globe.
The current political atmosphere in Turkey makes the release of Mustang even more important, Ergüven describes her country as "going through a very particular time", especially when it comes to the place of women in Turkish society.
At a Turkish news conference after the film's release, reporters asked Ergüven if the tyrannical uncle Erol in the film, should be interpreted as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. During the writing, “he was very present in my mind, with other male figures,” she said.
This collection of artwork by Christina was created after she watched the film and read interviews with the director, "I wanted the artwork to reflect the spirit and the strength of the girls in Mustang, whilst also expressing how delicate they are, they are children after all and that leaves them vulnerable - I wanted that to come through. The colours were inspired by the beautiful coastal scenes in the film, the blues of the ocean and that very particular, warm late afternoon light that creeps through into the 'prison' the girls find themselves in."
WIN ONE OF THESE ORIGINAL PIECES OF ARTWORK BY VISITING THE TIME IS NOW FACEBOOK PAGE
Over on The Time is Now Facebook page we're giving you the chance to win one of these original pieces of art - three winners will be chosen on 10th June so enter the competition today!
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ART BY CHRISTINA CALLAGHAN
To see all three pieces in the wild horses collection and for a chance to win visit the TTIN Facebook page before 10th June.
And to see more of Christina's work, some of which is shown on the left, visit her Facebook page.
