Meet Yasemin Tekgurler!
Yasemin is a Studio Art and Sociology double major from Istanbul, Turkey. On first glance at her senior show, you might think wax is her medium of choice, but during her time at Davidson, she has worked with many different media. In one of her favorite classes, Basic Sculpture, she was first introduced to woodwork, welding, bronze-casting, metalwork and so many other media in addition to wax. For Yasemin, the medium she chooses to work with reflects the nature of the subject she is researching. As she explores her topics, she finds that her creative process allows her to “search for a new language along the way.” This past year as she worked on her senior show, Yasemin enjoyed stretching the boundaries of how she could use wax: creating new shapes, spray-painting them different colors, or even embracing the pieces that broke off. One unique characteristic of wax is its fragility. By nature, wax is a difficult medium to work with, but Yasemin finds that it is “equally soothing and exciting,” and that there is “a new power in its ephemeral quality.”
In addition to her art classes, Yasemin’s first introduction to Sociology was Dr. Delia-Deckard’s course, “Refugees, Migrants and the Stateless.” The class focused on pushing students to think outside of their comfort zones as they questioned the systems that dehumanize certain groups. Yasemin quickly fell in love with the challenging topics the course addressed and felt it brought her personal experiences witnessing injustice into the context of her academic life. Through Dr. Deckard’s class and another, Art 401, the senior Studio Art captsone, Yasemin began to develop her passion for social justice and to focus on combining it with her art-making process. Art 401 also allowed Yasemin to focus on her art-making as a whole beyond the physical process of creating a piece.
Current sociopolitical issues are central to Yasemin’s creative process. For Yasemin, art is a way to process her life experiences and the issues of today– she feels that “art and personal experiences can’t be separated.” One particularly important experience that influenced her commitment to social justice work was her summer experience working at a refugee camp in Greece. Through this opportunity, Yasemin was inspired to begin devising art projects that showcased both her personal life experiences and those of the people she met at the camp. Although she notes that storytelling is not the driving force behind her art, Yasemin finds that by nature of origin, her art innately expresses the stories of people she has met and befriended. Her senior exhibition Refuge Taken is a show dedicated to exploring the paradox between the ideas of taking refuge in a new country, and also having that place of refuge taken away.
When asked about what her senior exhibit means to her, Yasemin notes that art is a way for her to deal with her frustration about the current dialogue on immigration. In particular, she feels people are apt to overlook anti-immigration issues overseas. Through her art, she seeks to help the viewer face certain realities that may seem far away but often hit closer to home than we imagine. Refuge Taken is a body of work that has “been in [Yasemin’s] mind for a long time,” and is her way to push back against the hostility shown toward refugee immigrants, especially from the Turkish people toward Syrian refugees.
After graduation, Yasemin will be the Davidson Impact Fellow at the Georgia Justice Project. She also hopes to continue her art-making practice in relation to the sociopolitical issues facing her new community. Yasemin expects to submit some of her work to different exhibitions in the area, as well, and hopes that her art can “find a home”–much of Yasemin’s work is for sale! Contact the gallery for more information. While she expects her work will change forms as she adapts to a new community, Yasemin is confident that she will continue to be involved in sociopolitical activism through art in the future.