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Pinar Yolacan found
her muse from reading art magazines. The then 13-year-old used to
follow her elder sister studying Graphic Design to the university
library in Ankara, Turkey, where she became fascinated with art
magazines. What Yolacan saw in the magazines fired her creativity and
she started out working with vegetables and plant skins to make
sculptures. Her art has since grown to include photography, clothing,
and sculpting. Her ‘Maria’ series, large photographs showing black
women dressed in clothes with animal entrails sewn on them, was
displayed at a recent exhibition held at the Centre for Contemporary
Art (CCA), Yaba, Lagos.

One of many arts

I do not consider
myself a photographer, I only use it as a medium to express an idea,
the way I use clothes in my works. It’s just one departure. When I have
an idea, every other thing revolves around it. Photography is just [a]
medium, it’s not like I walk around taking photographs of people. I
like faces, they strike me so anytime I go to a new country, I like to
follow their lives. Apart from ‘Maria Series’, I also have
‘Perishables’ of which ‘Maria Series’ is an extension.

In 2009, I did a
new body of work called ’Mother Goddess’ where ladies wore jumpsuits
that covered them from head to toe. The women looked like sculptures; I
had the idea while I was in Turkey. I heard about some excavation sites
where they were digging up stone sculptures and this was similar to my
idea. I picked up on that, so I used women from distant villages and
put them in thick fabric jumpsuits. They looked like sculptures the way
the fabric handled their flesh.

Eclectic works

My work is a
combination of a lot of things, clothing, photography and sculpture.
That’s what makes it contemporary art because it’s trying to convey an
idea using different elements. I think the people in the fashion
industry understand my work a little better than a lot of contemporary
art critics. I don’t think they are contemporary enough. Sometimes, I
think they believe that you have to read 10 books before you understand
what the work is saying. I think the people in the fashion industry
understand the process that I go through to get my work done.

Building trust

In getting the job
done in ‘Maria’ series for example, I try to build a trust relationship
with my subject. I try to tell them where the pictures will end up. I
try to explain to them what the idea is more or less. I paid them
because they are poor people but if they don’t feel comfortable with it
or don’t want to do it, they won’t do it. One needs to have a sense of
legitimacy to do these things. Apart from the fact that they have to
wear meat, the art of taking someone’s portrait is a very intimate
thing. It is not every day that they have a dress made for them. It is
not every day that someone asks them to sit down for a portrait.

When the subjects
see their picture in a book cover or learn about their pictures being
exhibited, some of them like it, but it’s not all of them that know
where the works end up since I am not in touch with all of them. Those
that see it get to know about them through newspapers and magazines.

I actually started
‘Maria’ series when I was in New York. Then I got a scholarship to go
and do a residency in Bahia, Brazil. When I got there, I did not know
what I was getting into because I did not know how I was going to
communicate to people. I was not sure who would want to participate,
but eventually I met some amazing people. I mean, people who were
willing to help me. The idea of ‘Maria’ Series had to do with culture,
and their African heritage, mainly from Nigeria, because they have a
lot of Yoruba traditional practices there.

One of the women
whose picture I had taken, Celine, she works in construction and has
nine children. So, these women have normal lives, they are just simple
everyday people.

‘Perishables’ is
the one exhibition that got me major exposure and ‘Maria’ series is
just an extension of it. I think it is because it was well executed.

Inspiring city

I am inspired by
people and my experiences. I love artists like Chris Ofili, Marina
Abramovic and Charles Atlas. I love Lee Barry, he is a drag queen; I
like the way he makes the clothing by himself, I love musicians too.

I am fascinated by the way people dress here (Lagos), I love the way
people buy the fabric and sew the clothes. The way they dress is
amazing and gorgeous. It’s like everybody is going to the prom.