A World Constructed by Assembling Pieces Together: Interview with Yağız Gülseven

30/11/2022

A World Constructed by Assembling Pieces Together: Interview with Yağız Gülseven

Ulya Soley

                          

In the practice of Yağız Gülseven, who has recently started to share their works with the audience, fragmented patterns evolve into dimensional installations. Referring to social conscience by drawing on personal stories in the worlds they construct around mythological, art historical/cultural figures, Gülseven builds a strong relational bond between these figures. Adopting a detailed and almost scientific language, they focus on issues that are difficult to tackle in a definitive manner, such as gender, family, class, and systems. Last year their works were exhibited at Olimpos Sergileri [Olympos Exhibitions], at Tabiatımız [Our Nature] exhibition held in Barın Han following the TAPA residency, and at Mamut Art Project. With Gülseven who recently participated in Ankara Queer Art Program, we had a conversation on their practice, sources of inspiration, and the experience of exhibiting works.

Yağız Gülseven: Presenting my works to the audience is a new experience for me. It was very scary at first, particularly at Mamut Art Project. Never before have my work been met by so many people at the same time. I felt as if I was mentally unprepared for such a great visibility. Of course, now, I’m not as scared as I used to be, but I still feel a little uneasy about that. Since I divide the work into pieces and later combine them in the exhibition space, my excitement grows further. Actually, I myself see the final version of the work together with the audience.

US: Can you please explain your practice further? What is your starting point, how do you proceed, how come your drawings evolve into installations?

YG: I don’t know exactly when my drawings evolved into installations, but it seems like a permanent mark that my habit of keeping sketchbooks has left on my works. There was a long period during which I only worked with a sketchbook before I exhibited my work. While working on the book, I got so used to jumping into one frame following another that a single frame appeared very restraining to me. It seems I brought this perspective offered by the codex form into the way I produce my work. In my first attempts, I was dividing the work into pieces and then reframing them into an installation. However, recently, I usually start from an idea of installation and try to go top down. Now that I think about it, the word installation doesn't fit very well with these works. Perhaps it would be more accurate to define them as drawings that pretend to be an installation.

                     

US: What are the sources that affect and shape your practice? Do the things you read, watch, listen to, experience, or consume daily, affect your production?

YG: I mostly read fiction these days. I have just finished reading Margaret Atwood's The Testaments. Before that, I read Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I think I'm mostly interested in works that create their own worlds. I usually listen to podcasts while drawing.

US: There are some figures that we frequently encounter in your works. For example, birds, snakes, cages, dolls or toy horses. How should we read these cultural figures, which are often fragmented into frames and are brought together in the installation?

YG: While incorporating these figures into my works, I usually try to preserve the meaning they have in mythological or social conscience. For example, birds such as eagles and hawks are constantly associated with male gods in different mythologies. While constructing a new work, I try to draw on the layers of meaning within these figures, as in the example I just presented.

                     

US: These figures also make room for queer readings. How do you think / define / use queer?

YG: Although I am not quite sure about that, I think that queer should not be defined as an art movement, and trying to treat it like a movement goes basically against the definition of queer. Maybe queer is a way of seeing rather than an art movement. This seems to me more plausible. I think it should be discussed as the flow of knowledge or affect in the production - audience – producer triangle. Otherwise, it might lead us to a dangerous point where we meddle with the identities of queer artists or where we look for queer visibility in the works with a magnifying glass in our hands.

US: You adopt a very detailed and scientific language in your drawings. Employment of such a language in addressing issues that are difficult to tackle in a definitive manner such as gender, family, class, and systems adds another layer to your works. Can you tell us about your reasons for choosing this kind of a language?

YG: I cannot say that this is something that I particularly prefer. Scientific illustrations in encyclopedias have always intrigued me. I find it exciting to try to describe a figure objectively, in a detached way. While addressing the issues you mentioned using this language adds another layer to the work, I think, it also renders my perspective more objective as a producer, and thus makes things easier for me.

US: You stayed in Ankara for two months as part of Ankara Queer Art Program. How did the program contribute to your practice? Can you share your impressions about the art scene in Ankara?

YG: It actually provided a space that I haven’t realized before that I needed. As a person who lives and produces in Istanbul, I haven’t realized that the city I live in has such an impact on my life and my works. In Ankara I realized that, when I was in Istanbul, I was very much obsessed with all those things that should be considered perhaps only secondarily, such as when the work would be finished, by whom it would be visited, where and how it should be seen. I spent those two months all alone with my work by writing a lot and going to the parks to draw plant sketches. I decided to extend my experience in Ankara to my life in Istanbul when I returned. It's a bit difficult, but at least I can say I'm trying :)

US: You are currently busy with preparations for your solo exhibition. Can you tell us about the themes you will focus on in this exhibition?

YG: For this exhibition I have focused on themes such as generational traumas, unlearning, and grief. I don't know where they will lead, but for now these are the subjects I’m pursuing...