Serhat Tanyolacar

Artist Statement – 2022

As an artist-activist, I take my social role in opposing the authority and callous governing structures, e.g., imperialist nation-states or racist ideologies. Being an opposition in artistic and cultural practice is crucial to artistic expression, individual liberty, and freedom of speech. Art to me is never conclusive; it is a continuous, transformative journey. Sometimes it is the sheer expression of material (paint, printmaking ink) or walking in the streets of New York City with Islamic jubbahs, or negotiating with the TSA agents while flying intercontinental with a full-face mask. The desired outcome-if there is one- is always anti-authoritarianism and triggering possible changes following the dialogues over the artwork. The artwork is a mediator. Thus, anti-authoritarianism may mean the artist’s release-giving up on- the ownership and authority of the artwork or even his own “artist identity”.

When I earned my first B.F.A. in Painting in The Republic of Turkey during the late 1990s, I focused on capitalism, consumerism, and self-alienation. Moreover, I exercised my political theories through unexpected and spontaneous social interventions. The first year was mainly about discerning a balance between self, politics (in literal terms), and my studio process. The more I distanced myself from "self," the more I was lost in existing political models. More explicitly implementing print media into my installation works, fine arts was my solution to engage organic and poetical dialogues with the artworks' audience.

Various artists and movements influence both my personal and artistic life: Dadaists, The Situationist International and Fluxus movement, Francisco de Goya, Honore Daumier, Kathe Kolwitz, Elizabeth Catlett, Robert Rauschenberg, Barbara Kruger, Miriam Schapiro, Sue Coe, Louise Bourgeois, Hans Haacke, Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, Guerilla Girls, and Bas Jan Ader.

Since my early years as a professional artist, I have been following the same work plan in my studio practice: The starting point or the spark, which is compelling content relevant to my memories, research (philosophy), production, display, interchange, and dialogues with the audience, documentation during and after the physical duration and the commentary making and different philosophies after the work of art becomes the artifact or residue.

From 1998 to the late 2010s my main intent was to bring social awareness through provocation and public dialogue as an artist. During this period, I produced and used my works strategically to engage viewers in critical economic, social, and political issues. I displayed them in public spaces—parks, university campuses, and public transportation areas, for example—because it is in these places where I could create the most direct connection with my audience.

Moving to the United States in 2002 allowed me to take more significant risks in challenging the laws of authoritarian states. I have developed poetically absurd and innovative strategies to create provocative, humorous, and even morally challenging dialogues between my artwork and the audience. These dialogues become the artwork even after the end of the physical viewing and the audience's physical experience of the artwork. I have realized that especially the contained gallery or the museum space creates the façade of the artwork. They do not only institutionalize but also contextualize the artwork. The power of any controlled artwork relies on its success in opening dialogues in multiple subjects rather than its intended or forced context. In this sense, the artist’s job or responsibility is more to be a cultural producer; a negotiator, a mediator, or a trigger mechanism rather than an art producer.

Throughout my artistic career, I have been censored on multiple occasions. In 2015, I enacted the Farewell / Elveda public performance series in the U.S.A. and Turkey. These performances opened public dialogues on Neo-Ottomanism and the Western conception of the stereotypical cultural identity of The Orient. In front of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Presidential Palace in Ankara, the Turkish Political Investigation Bureau forcefully stopped the Farewell public performance on March 12, 2015. Since December 2015, I have been exiled and not allowed to enter Turkiye. Another public performance, Arzuhalci (Public Scribe) was also censored by the Turkish authorities in 2013.

I have extensive teaching experience in both the United States and my home country of Turkey. I have taught in various capacities at the following institutions: the University of Iowa, University of South Florida, Florida Institute of Technology, University of Tampa, Hillsborough Community College, Brevard Community College, Florida Institute of Technology, Renk Gallery. Ankara, Turkey.

Over the next ten years, I will prioritize my work as the following:

- Raising awareness on social justice and environmental issues.

- Advocating for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

- Advocating for academic freedom

- Developing a progressive visual arts curriculum at the college or university of my employment

- Developing dimensional, multiple-color prints with powdered pigments for the laser-engraved and C.N.C. printmaking techniques.

- Conducting further experiments on the laser engraving used for lithography printmaking.

- Writing a guidebook for new media printmaking techniques.

- Initiating an International Art Camp in Cyprus inside the U.N.'s Green Zone with the possible collaborations of UNESCO Cultural Conventions.