Each month, Nikki Wilson interviews an Ignite Member, asking five simple questions, to find out what creativity means to them, and how they see culture and creativity, and its potential, in Chelmsford.

This month Nikki talks to Aytac Uzmen.

How would you describe what you do? 

I’ve had a few different roles in my life. When I was younger I worked in the film industry as a Director’s Assistant and I even directed a pilot documentary about Istanbul, called ‘Pink Cadillac’. I wrote articles about London photographic exhibitions for a Turkish photography magazine ‘Geniş Açı’ for five years. In recent years I have worked as a freelance photographer specialising in tailored portraits, which draws on my BA degree in Fine Art photography from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. I’ve also taught photography in various schools, run lots of workshops, and created conceptual art projects. I have been a Co-Director of The Art Place, The Ideas Hub´s project, since 2022 and I am now also the Director of our new photography studio. All these are integral parts of my career development. The thread running through all of these roles is my passion for connecting people by challenging divisive mindsets and encouraging tolerance of social diversity.

Before talking about any of my art projects, I would like to say a little about my life journey, because I believe all stories have a way of looping back to the storyteller. I was born in Germany to Turkish parents. My grandma brought me up with my two sisters in Turkey, while my parents were still in Germany.  After the cataclysmic 1999 earthquake in Izmit, I moved to the UK and for the last 24 years I’ve lived in Chelmsford, travelling back and forth between countries. When you live with different cultures, rules, values, and languages from a very young age I think you start to develop some kind of perception based on a wider lens, because you see, “oh, they’re doing things this way, they’re doing things that way” and at the end of the day, both of them are just fine.

My life experience inspired me to express my observations of society, human nature and the human condition, through all those art projects. The main goal of my conceptual art projects has always been to encourage people to enter into a new dialogue with others beyond divisive labels and social alienation.

My first project was, “Melez” or “Melange” in English. It was a series of collage portraits for my university graduation project, and it was published in the ‘Karakutu’ photo-book series in 1998 and won a special jury award at the Siemens photography competition. For this project I took lots of Polaroids of the person at different scales and angles and then patched them together. I used what we call emulsion transfer. For this, you have to put Polaroid photos in hot water, causing the emulsion to come loose and float on the surface like an onion skin, very thin, very vulnerable on the water. You can then lift it and put it on the new media, and I chose textured canvas background. During this physical transformation tearing and deformation of the images was inevitable and was a part of the process. The emulsion transfer method used here was an analogy of people’s experiences when migrating from one place to another. With these patchwork portraits I was trying to question Turkishness, because there’s always war, fighting, judging this way or another and I tried to bring some peace with my project by telling the audience that there is not just one type of Turkish individual, and your grandparents are likely to come from different parts of Turkey, if not from different countries. You’re a pastiche of different origins, everyone of you a genetic and cultural collage, so be at peace with yourself and others, because they are patchworks too.

With this initial project I’d already started developing my theme of interconnectedness, attempting to demonstrate that there is no cut-off point between one human and another or between humans and nature.

One of my other projects in recent years was called ‘The Other Has a Face’. In this project, again, I was trying to forge a connection between two strangers. Beneath all our labels, we are actually much less complex, simple beings. I therefore believe two total strangers can start a conversation and make a true connection. First, I asked the people around me the following to create a question pool. ‘If you had one question with which to really get to know someone, what would you ask?’ So they wrote lots of beautiful and interesting questions. I printed them all and put them in a Lucky Dip. I invited people to join my experimental project at the Fling Festival. I explained to them, “You’re going to be asked a question by a total stranger who you will never physically meet, but that person wants to know about you”. First, as a warm up session, I took passport style pictures of them, without any smiling or facial expressions, just very dull looking portraits, no personality, nothing but the bones and proportions. I asked them to write down their labels; names, age, occupation, marital status etc. Then I said, “OK, now we’re going to leave all those passport labels behind and let’s find out who you are underneath. As they drew the question from the lucky dip, transformation started. It was almost as if the universe was directing that strangers’ question to them and they took it very seriously when they answered the questions, they answered from their heart and almost fell into a magical state. I can’t explain it, but it happened with every single person. When they gave a very honest answer to those questions, they reconnected to their own core.

Transformation became visible in their facial expressions, in their eyes. While some of my sitters were moved to tears, some found deep peace.I tried to capture them in this moment so they could get a glimpse of their unmasked selves.They described to me everything they wanted to be in the picture. They guided me on the composition, angle, background etc., and I took their portraits. They poured their answers from their eyes into my lens. The sitter and I were connected deeply through the testimony of my camera. Many hugged me and they were in happy tears when they left. For me, seeing them make that connection with themselves through a stranger, was really moving. ‘The Other Has a Face’ has been chosen for Pechakuchanight in Chelmsford in 2018 – https://www.pechakucha.com/presentations/the-other-has-a-face

I’ve used the same concept, with a different approach in another project called ‘Blind Dialogue’. This project took part in LGBTQ+ History Month at the Pop-Up Art Gallery of Ideas Hub in 2022. The aim was pretty much the same; a social experiment of anonymous interaction and communication between two total strangers who were going into a dialogue with each other without knowing anything about each other.

There were two cubicles divided by a panel, they couldn’t see each other before going into their own cubicles because the entry times were different. They were separated by just a panel and a tiny gap.  The only method of communication was to write on paper and send questions through this gap. They had no clue about the other person’s gender, race, occupation or anything else. So it could be a person of any age sitting opposite you, perhaps an old person, maybe a trans person, maybe a person of a different race, and they had to start the conversation without being able to label that person in any way. Again, my aim was to challenge their perception, because our minds unconsciously make assumptions and judgments, perhaps even jumping to conclusions, when we talk to people without even noticing. We talk to their age, or how they look without even realising it. But when people have this blind dialogue experience then their minds are burning to know “Who is it?”, “I just want an image of them, you know, just something, give me anything”. Blind Dialogue is a great way to connect soul to soul. It worked beyond my expectations, and I received a lot of amazing feedback. One quote from the guest book said, “This is something everyone should try at least once in their life. Wonderful experience; eye opening and inspiring.” I’d like to repeat this project again in the near future and I’m currently in discussion with someone about doing it again soon. 

And who, or what gives you creative inspiration?

My inspiration comes from a few different sources. I’ve always been fascinated by the way things co-exist in nature, interdependently. When I go for walks, I have a dialogue with nature. Out of these walks and the photos that I take on them, I created a series, and two different exhibitions came out of this series called ‘Dialogue with Nature’. As you can see once again, dialogues are a feature of my work. 

Another inspiration is my multi-cultural background. I like travelling but you don’t always need to travel geographically. Sometimes, even in the same city, when you meet new people, it’s another way to travel and it continues to happen in everybody’s inner world anyway.  Travelling is creating a fresh dialogue through a new lens.

I’m also inspired by artists. I talked earlier about my ‘Melez’ project, the patchwork Polaroids. That was inspired by David Hockney’s collage photographic work. With the Polaroid emulsion transfer, it worked perfectly for my project.

If you could try any new creative or cultural experience or practice, what would it be?

I would like to try out some of my projects, such as “The Other has a Face” or “Blind Dialogue” on a much larger scale. Until now, I have only really piloted them, and I have been surprised at the way people are moved by these projects and I believe that they have the potential to be transformative with a wider audience. Before I start a brand new project, I really want to see these, my little babies, grow a little bit and meet a wider audience. 

I’m very proud of the fact that I headed a team which created a new professional photography studio at the Art Place. In doing this I fulfilled a lifetime’s vision to create a space in which people can take part and explore the art of photography and develop their skills and potential. 
Right now, I’m expanding my photography horizons, running photo studio workshops. I’m collaborating with lots of other photographers who are creating their own workshops. I’m also encouraging young photographers to join us and develop their ideas and creativity. I’m so excited about creating a new network with all these different ages of photographers under the same roof. You can see how happy they are to see each other, learn from each other, and share their ideas. I’m really looking forward to our future projects in the photography studio, because the possibilities are endless. You can play, experiment,  paint with light using different camera techniques, and so much more. 

What excites you about creativity and culture in Chelmsford?

When I moved to Chelmsford 24 years ago, it was, and I’m sorry to say it, really lacking in culture and character.  It suited my early motherhood, because I was looking after my two boys, but as a photographer, I was hungry to meet other artists and join some exhibitions, but there wasn’t much going on. Over the last few years, I’ve been so happy to see some big changes through Ignite, Concrete Canvas, Culture Chelmsford, Chelmsford Festival & Carnival, Chelmsford City Culture, Chelmsford for You, and especially The Art Place-Ideas Hub Chelmsford, which quietly behind the scenes has been stimulus and energy behind many local cultural initiatives. They have kindly hosted all my exhibitions and projects so far, and I’m so thankful for all their support and the space they’ve given me to grow. Compared to 24 years ago, it’s like a paradise now, and I’m keen to play my part in continuing this growth. I’m really enjoying it, and I appreciate everyone’s support and everyone’s contributions.

What would you like to see in Chelmsford that isn’t here yet?

I would like to see art at the next level for Chelmsford. We’ve made a good start but I hope to see it taken to the next step, by which I mean, taken a little bit more seriously, and given a bit more space. I’d like to see a dedicated museum, the equivalent of Firstsite in Colchester. Although we have Chelmsford Museum, I’d like us to have an art museum which is exclusively for art. For artists, space is so important, they can create at home, they can create in their studios, but when you give a proper space to an artist they can grow faster and more comfortably. This is what happened to me through my experience with the Pop-Up Gallery of The Ideas Hub during the ‘Where is Home’ exhibition. I was only expecting to be given a small space to hang my photographs, but when I saw that they’d given me a huge wall, I felt I could express myself much better. I created an art installation with maps, postcards, tickets, souvenirs and some of my photographs. I combined them to look like a detective case board with red thread going around. I invited my audience to help me to find the answer to my question, “Where is my Home?” I was reflecting on the fact that when a person grows up amongst all these different cultures and countries, the concept of home has a deep personal meaning to them but you can’t pinpoint a single physical place where that person’s home is. I’d like to share a few lines from my intro: “To anyone who knows the answer already, the question “Where is Home?” is a strange one. It is like asking, “Where is air?” An almost meaningless question, until one loses their home, then it becomes a vitally important one!”

This was another interactive art project. As you can see, all my photographic exhibitions and my conceptual art projects invite people in, creating a dialogue about connections. Because of my childhood, I feel deeply that our main sustenance is the “connection with each other”. We can’t be alone. We need diversity, we need the nourishment of human connection, rather than seeing just barriers or differences, and I’m trying to create bridges where people see barriers.

Back to your question; something artists in Chelmsford generally lack is proper training in finance. You need to know how to create a business, and how to generate income. Artists are naturally good at their art, but they may not know how to manage their finances to allow them to continue with their art. Artists need to survive and pay their bills, and many would benefit from some training or services in this area.

One last thing I’d like to say is that in Chelmsford we need to keep nourishing our art lovers. Art can’t survive alone. We need more people to appreciate it, so I implore everyone to go out and enjoy the pleasure of creating and to support local art and artists so we can support each other.