miscellaneous 2012
miscellaneous 2011
miscellaneous 2010
Tag Sinija (see-nee-ya)
I find tagging to be both beautiful and enjoyable. However, what is more beautiful is to see layers of tags, stencils, graffiti, and stickers melt into an abstract composition. I have grown to adore the effect so much that I started to use it as background for my paintings. Eventually it became boring, so I started to tag fridges, tables, doors, lockers, and random objects around me, but it was still not enough. After a chain of thoughts, I remembered an object from back home in former Yugoslavia that I realized I would love to paint. It is a very low and round table that I have seen only in historical museums, but could probably be found in households located in the countryside of former YU. Such type of table is well known as sinija (see-nee-ya). Most likely it was brought to Balkans during the Ottoman Empire. Sinija was mainly used for dinning, gathering the entire family together ready to eat around a huge pot or plate of food. Households had a separate sinija for kids and one for adults. People usually sat on the floor or on small chairs known as shamlice/shchemlije. Shamlice can still be found in modern households back in former YU, usually on the entrance of a house, where one can sit to remove shoes (in my culture we remove shoes before entering the house). But of course, those chairs have multiple purposes, depending on the needs of a household.
As I thought about sinija I became inspired and ready to tag one, but I realized I did not have one! No big deal, I will just make one. So I made one, tagged it, and had good time doing so, but I was still missing something. Ooh, shamlice to put around. That's fine, I will make them, too. I made six and put them around. As I started to tag one, I noticed something was wrong. I felt that it was too much to have the chairs tagged, so I painted them a neutral gray color.
Afterwards, I wanted to learn more about sinija online, but I was not able to find much information. I have heard stories about how families use to gather around sinija to dine together and how they would eat from a pot with wooden spoons. My neighbor who grew up on the countryside told me a story about his family. He told me how they used to eat the broth from a single pot, gathered around sinija. All his family members would grab the food clockwise with their spoons, and so the broth stirred clockwise as well, making it difficult to catch any meat from the bottom. So he always tried to grab food counterclockwise with his spoon in hope of getting some meat. Of course, I know he was exaggerating, but as a kid it was still fun listening to his story. To this day, his story is one of my sources in regards to sinija.
I had a lot of fun designing sinija and shamlice, and I hope you will enjoy my story and design as well.
As I thought about sinija I became inspired and ready to tag one, but I realized I did not have one! No big deal, I will just make one. So I made one, tagged it, and had good time doing so, but I was still missing something. Ooh, shamlice to put around. That's fine, I will make them, too. I made six and put them around. As I started to tag one, I noticed something was wrong. I felt that it was too much to have the chairs tagged, so I painted them a neutral gray color.
Afterwards, I wanted to learn more about sinija online, but I was not able to find much information. I have heard stories about how families use to gather around sinija to dine together and how they would eat from a pot with wooden spoons. My neighbor who grew up on the countryside told me a story about his family. He told me how they used to eat the broth from a single pot, gathered around sinija. All his family members would grab the food clockwise with their spoons, and so the broth stirred clockwise as well, making it difficult to catch any meat from the bottom. So he always tried to grab food counterclockwise with his spoon in hope of getting some meat. Of course, I know he was exaggerating, but as a kid it was still fun listening to his story. To this day, his story is one of my sources in regards to sinija.
I had a lot of fun designing sinija and shamlice, and I hope you will enjoy my story and design as well.
