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Neriman Polat questions urban lifestyle in photographs
“My starting point was a very essential question,” says Polat, in an interview with Today’s Zaman. “How can I consume less? How can we achieve a simpler life? Because my works are generally on consumption, the society of consumption, property, identity of women and globalization. Actually these are issues based largely on urban life, and in this exhibition I wanted to have a different perspective.”
“I try to escape from the city every time I get the chance,” says Polat, “and I try to live in a natural environment.” However, this seems unreal for many city dwellers; that is to say, living a simpler and more modest life seems a sweet dream that is impossible to achieve: There’s no way back from chaos to simplicity. “To live modestly may not seem that unreal in the future,” says Polat, “because we will have to live modestly then. We will have to remember essential knowledge. This is a process that we have to question -- our habits of consumption.”
For Polat, verbalizing her opposition is not enough. “We are against everything,” says Polat. “We against wars, global warming and so on, but we continuously support this consuming lifestyle. We are part of everything of which we complain.” Taking all this into consideration, Polat completed this exhibition using photography and documentation. “I’ve included the space of the gallery into the exhibition,” says Polat, showing the colorful curtains over the windows. “All this space has became an installation space,” she states.
Function or decoration?
Polat has been working on the photographs in the exhibition, which runs until May 1, for the past four years. She captured these shots in villages of Bodrum, such as Dereköy and Çukurluk. “I’ve been going there for four years and staying for a couple of months,” explains Polat. “Since there’s no electricity or noise, your perception becomes more open to other sounds in nature. But this doesn’t happen immediately. It takes time.”
A native of İstanbul, Polat also passed through the same process of adaptation. “I tried to remember the things that I had forgotten,” says Polat. “I began to see the reflections of the sun, the shadows and the simple systems more quickly. In such a place, your relationship with the object is very different, too; it is more functional. Every object serves a function there; nothing is for decorative purposes. That’s why the idea of design in the city drives me crazy because everybody tends to use the same design, and it becomes a non-living, monotype design. In the country, however, there’s an organic design, and everything has a function.”
Many objects which Polat has photographed are functional objects that are now used as decorative objects in urban dwellings, such an oil lamps or old buckets. However, the fact that these objects are still being used in the country brings a question to one’s mind. “I’m not using these objects for nostalgic reasons; they are still being used,” says Polat. “There’s such a life going on simultaneously to our urban lives.”
Polat is undoubtedly trying to raise awareness about the end of the craze of consumption and the necessity of a pure and simple way of living; nevertheless, she also notes that even “the call to a natural lifestyle” and art itself have become elements of the market. “The natural lifestyle has become a means of profit,” says Polat. “They are making a market out of it. But this doesn’t change the fact.”
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