Sinkhole Storytelling


After doing walking interviews with many farmers I come across in the field, some stories have started to accumulate, creating a particular image of Karapınar in my mind. This drawing is about these stories. I chose scratching as a way to draw a plan view of this particular sinkhole I filmed. Scratching on white paper helps me emphasize that the sinkhole is not a clear, isolated boundary in the field but a part of it. Mostly cultivated plants draw the sinkhole's boundary. I find it interesting how a sinkhole changes our perspective on the ground from a plate under our feet into a section that has been formed over a million years. Therefore, I want to capture both its plan and section together. Outside the sinkhole's edge is drawn on a top-view plane, while inside the edge the drawing continues as we see the sinkhole's periphery in elevation. Drone footage that scans the periphery walls of the sinkhole helps me record the exact cracks and plants, which I scratch onto the paper before a soft pencil passes over the cracks. The scratches beneath the soft pencil remain white, shifting the drawing line from a black mark on white paper into an empty space. These unmarked spaces hold open a place for the cracks to emerge. Plants at the edge of the sinkhole are drawn in elevation as a continuation of the periphery walls.  During walking interviews, how many metres farmers need to go deeper to reach water is a common theme. Going deeper means a more powerful propelling force for the motors, which means more electricity consumed, which means higher bills. Therefore, it is hard to understand farming here separately from the electric plant, which is a private company. As sinkholes occur as a result of excessive use of underground water, the solar plant comes as an important part of the story, and thus of the drawing. As we talk with farmers from different parts of the Konya Closed Basin, we hear different water table levels, ranging from 100 to 500 metres, with the water table mostly dropping towards the north. At the lower left part of the paper, paper tape and moulding paste, as a section, try to imitate the karst structure of this ground, with underground cavities that help water move, while irrigation systems in top view constantly give water in this part of the year, becoming part of the drawing. The scale changes throughout the drawing as it brings different elements together, from a small plant to massive underground systems.One particular aspect of the stories I gather is that before the solar plant, the same field was used as pasture land for their animals. It was a common land where every community living close to it fed its animals. Privatization of this land meant they lost their pasture, one of the biggest in Turkey according to community people. Although the private company lets them graze between 02:00 and 04:00, the time when the solar plant is set at a particular level because the sun is gone, this is neither enough nor possible for farmers to use regularly, as they normally graze their animals between 05:00 and 09:00 and between 16:00 and 20:00, depending on the sun's position. Therefore, sheep are an important part of the drawing, as their number is decreasing every day because farmers cannot afford to feed them hay bales. Feeding hay also keeps the sheep in one place without moving, which matters for this ecosystem, as moving sheep help to spread seeds, bacteria, etc. Traditionally, and also for sustainability, farming and husbandry are interdependent systems, which is something Karapınar is losing. As animal numbers decrease, households may rely more heavily on crop production for income. Yet livestock keeping also creates a continuing demand for fodder, including maize and alfalfa grown for silage or hay. In a region dependent on groundwater irrigation, this can create a difficult cycle in which the economic need to maintain both cultivation and livestock production contributes to increased water use. The bird hitting the drone is part of the drawing to acknowledge drone use, as are the red tapes showing my position, far away from the edge at a safe distance from sinkhole, I assume.