Toys R Pretext

Wooden Toys, 2016

Toys R Pretext is a wooden toy collection created by Miné and exhibited in her solo exhibition. The collection includes the six toys Huge Whirligig, Hoop Roller, Grrrrr...Growler, Spinning Drum, Giant Spinner and House Painter, which are redesigned as a new generation of traditional toys from Anatolia. The design is inspired by Eyüp Toys and various anonymous toys in Anatolian culture. These have fostered Miné‘s design approach; scaling up the sizes of traditional toys for kids to actively play with using their whole bodies. The design decisions applied in the production is based on using massive plywood as the main material, combining it with felt and rope as secondary materials. All toys are unfinished -not painted, coloured, or polished- on purpose, to provide a space for the imagination, interaction, and creativity of kids. The idea here is for kids to be co-designers of the toys as an ongoing process of play and creation.

Special thanks to Çınar Ege Dörtbaş (9) and Bartu Barutçuoğlu (9) for their support during the toy design development process by playing with them, asking questions and sharing their ideas about them with their drawings

Prototype Production by Özgür Korkmaz
Felt Production by Ayfer Güleç
Photography by Yaman Umut Bilir