Turkish artist makes porcelain masks amid COVID-19

KASTAMONU, Turkey A Turkish ceramics artist is making face masks using porcelain to raise awareness against the novel coronavirus. Firdevs Mujde Gokbel, a lecturer in the ceramics and glass department at Kastamonu University in northern Turkey, told Anadolu Agency she decided to draw attention to difficulties with the virus through art after her parents, brother and sister were infected with COVID-19. “The emergence of coronavirus cases in my family and the fact that my father overcame the illness with difficulties made me feel that I had to do something about it,” she said. It was difficult to find a good mask when the pandemic first emerged, she said. “I made some additions to the porcelain masks to indicate the difficulty of reaching a good and affordable mask,” she said. She used 22-carat gold decor on the rope of the first mask. It was a reference to companies trying to gain an unfair advantage. “My masks were an effort as an artist to ensure that they should not be treated this way commercially and to ensure social unity,” she said. Gokbel gave some of her creations to friends and others were featured in national and international exhibitions organized online. She said her studies continue regarding how to make masks more realistic and how to increase awareness. “With the mask exhibition I will open at the end of this process, I want to cause sadness on the faces of some families and a smile in which hopes are re-emerged,” said Gokbel. The world should never forget this process that it is experiencing, she said. “We should keep it in a corner of our minds and take precautions accordingly and healthily continue our lives,” she added. *Writing by Handan Kazanci