Umut Yalım is one of the most colorful, authentic and versatile figures of our contemporary art scene. Approaching the notion of art in his writings, drawings and performances from a critical perspective, Yalım talked to us about his journey as an artist, his areas of interest and his upcoming projects.
When did your fascination with art first begin? And how did Elvis enter your life?
My “Art” life began with those notebooks that parents hand to their children to keep them busy, with the only difference that I literally spent hours with them. This was around when I was 1-2 years old. I kept drawing non-stop until I was 11-12. Then I started writing. During that time, writing took precedence over drawing. And this was the very moment when Elvis stepped in. During high school I wasn’t someone who listened to a lot of music, unlike my age group in general. There wasn’t a singer I was crazy for either. I began to research the “Rockabilly” personalities once a classmate of mine in the UK told me “there was too much Rock’n’Roll” in my drawings. As soon as I did, I got my first slap in the face from Elvis. Both in his life story and his music, I found we had so much in common. I have been working with that parallelism ever since.
Let’s talk a bit about the art education you received in the UK. What was the process like? What kinds of contributions did it have on you?
The most typical aspect of the Anglo-American education system is its willingness to leave the individual alone, so that he can find his own way, with his own efforts. And unlike the French school system based on ateliers, it has a lot of room for freedom. As long as you are behind what you do and you maintain your position whatever happens, your professors provide you with all kinds of support. For me, the most important contributions of this structure have been self-confidence, resistance against the slavery of the mainstream artistic currents and an integrated approach towards all artistic disciplines. I think this is also the biggest problem for the artists in our country: adapting to the mainstream too quickly and confining yourself to one single path.
What are the main concepts and themes in your artistic practice? Who is this Rockabilly? And why him?
Essentially any subject. But I take that any subject and make it my own, and turn it into a symbol. Then I reduce this symbolism to the scale of an object or commodity. For instance, for me, a phone that rings despite being unplugged corresponds to waiting and any other subject matter related to it. And the handle of all these situations and subject matters is the Noncompliant Rockabilly. I can refer to him as my alter-ego. He’s like the summary of my last fifteen years. An Elvis-like personality. His clothes, his figure, his hair, his style, etc… As I identify myself with Elvis, this is how my alter-ego manifests itself in my works.
In addition to visual arts, you are deeply interested in literature, and more specifically, poetry. How do these two areas in your practice relate to each other? What are their similarities and differences both in terms of creative experience and subject matter?
I think poetry is more of a form of plastic art than it is a literary genre. In Edip Cansever’s words, “Poetry is something that you do”. Its writing is essentially a kind of drawing; writing the word “cat” is more beautiful than drawing the cat. We are already accustomed to use the text as such in our traditional art, calligraphy. This is why I think we have an intuition, a perceptual inclination for this unity. And thus, in my works, I also use the text itself as an instrument of plasticity. In my newly emerging series WritingArting I use the text and its narrative style as a drawing instrument. In short, my poems and my plastic artworks develop intrinsically.
How did your paths cross with Art50.net? Your thoughts on online art platforms?
I have known Güliz (Özbek) from the art scene for many years. I already knew and followed Art50.net of which she was the founder; but I became a part of it thanks to my friend Haydar Akdağ, the artist. He presented me to Art50.net and this way one more missing piece of mine was complete. For nowadays, the virtual environment is the biggest and fastest meeting point between what we did and will do, and the art enthusiasts. And Art50.net is one of the best representatives of this environment both in the Turkish and the international context. I believe that the world will build an inner-universe where the human being will become some sort of an online life form, and that art will not be immune to this phenomenon and will be produced exclusively within this online environment if we go on like this anyway. In my opinion, online platforms like Art50.net will be the single focus of life and art in the future.
Your biggest dream as an individual and an artist? And your upcoming project(s)?
One of my biggest dreams is to do a monumental installation at the Serpentine Gallery. Its conceptual and schematic foundations are already complete. I want to make a move for it in the days to come. Regarding my projects, I have always thought that the England part of my artistic journey remained interrupted. I want to do something about it as well. I also intend to switch from the group exhibitions I am often part of to a focus on solo exhibitions. I will have a solo show in November 7-25 at the Artifact Gallery in New York where I will exhibit works from the WritingArting project I mentioned earlier. I hope this will be one more step forward in my rapprochement with the American art scene. I want to develop WritingArting further in the days to come. I intend to carry it to a three-dimensional level. It seems that I will concentrate more heavily on Anti-Art within this context. I already refer to this period I’m going through as my Anti-Artist phase.
Click for the artist’s page.