Tea & Talk: Otherness of Immigrants
By Tulu Bayar, Bucknell University
This presentation explores immigrant identity and belonging through Mosaic Project, a collaborative art initiative involving recent immigrants who share personal photos, cultural artifacts, and stories through workshops. Using sustainable citrus image transfers, their contributions are transformed into a hand-bound artist book—an intimate archive of migration, memory, and resilience. As an immigrant artist, Bayar reflects on how the project challenges the notion of “otherness” by centering lived experiences and asking, What does home mean to you? Through tactile storytelling and collective authorship, Mosaic Project reframes immigrant narratives as integral to the American experience, inviting viewers to recognize themselves in the mosaic of shared humanity.
Professor Tulu Bayar teaches in Bucknell's Department of Art and Art History. “Her work is particularly relevant in today's global climate, where issues of identity, immigration and cultural hybridity are at the forefront of societal discourse” (https://www.bucknell.edu/news/bucknells-bayar-explores-immigrant-otherness-new-istanbul-exhibit-0, 2024).