Without biography or the marketing speak of a gallerist or curator we are free to engage with work on our own terms, resonances are often visceral, although there is little neutrality as we approach everything with a set of learned ideals and preconceptions. Location and situation, the where and how, of our encounter is another element worth considering.
The work of Turkish born, London Art School educated, New York based artist Pinar Yolacan came to me in the reading rooms of the British Library as I worked my way through the entire back catalogue of Gastronomica magazine. A research project may start with one very particular set of questions but the end result often tansmutes into an entirely different thing.
As I flayed amongst the limitless possibilities of my chosen subject (the visual representation of food) her work hit me with the same intensity as the accosting smell of rubbish truck does. A shiver as I imagined the cold, dead, raw meat draped on these women - an emotional response. Entrails sewn into the fabric of the design, intergrated to become bespoke items, beauty in the profane.
Yolacan's work is not about food, fashion or photography - they are merely the mediums that she incorporates into a collaborative performance with her subjects to articulate her own underlying autobiographical narratives. In her photographs food is reduced to its material element, it is given agency through its incongruous inclusion, it demands attention in its own right.
All images Pinar Yolacan courtesy of Rivington Arms Gallery, New York, USA. Images taken from the exhibition catalogues "Pinar Yolacan 'Perishables'" 2-28 March 2007, and "Pinar Yolacan 'Maria'" 20 March-4 May 2008 at the Yapi Kredi Kazim Taskent Art Gallery, Turkey
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