Palo Gallery is pleased to present French-Turkish artist Sarp Kerem Yavuz’s first collection of AI-generated artworks. Polaroids from the Ottoman Empire is a fascinating solo exhibition of 28 Polaroid works. It shows an alternate reality in which the Ottoman Empire continues to exist into the 21st century. Through artificially generated, orientantalist portraits of imagined queer individuals, the artist explores the alarming parallels of contemporary Turkish and American politics in a richly envisioned tableau. The exhibitions will be held from June 16 to June 20, 2023, as part of the month-long celebrations around Pride Month 2023.
Experimenting with the Midjourney Generative Artificial Intelligence program since early 2022, Yavuz has created a series of photorealistic images that blend the dreamlike cinematic style of Alejandro Jodorowsky with the emotional sobriety of Magnum photographer Ara Güler. These AI-generated images offer a glimpse into an imagined reality featuring a present-day Ottoman Empire led by an accursed Sultan who made a pact with a djinn in 1917 to reclaim Ottoman territories lost during World War 1. The series, which began with "Curse of the Forever Sultan" in 2018, drew attention through pixel art light-boxes and neon sculptures portraying undead Ottoman soldiers. Aiming to critique present-day Middle Eastern politics using video game aesthetics and caricatures, it sparked controversy in Turkey, leading to a police raid on Yavuz’s Istanbul gallery in 2019 and a declaration by the Turkish Ministry of Culture that the works were “offensive to the legacy of the Ottoman Empire.”
On the heels of the newly re-elected Turkish President’s escalated targeting of the LGBTQI+ community in Turkey, Polaroids from the Ottoman Empire explores the controversial subject matter in greater visual detail. To enhance the believability of these artificially generated images, the artist chose to print them on Polaroids using the Polaroid Lab and classical 600-type Polaroid film. The nostalgic texture and slight fuzziness of the Polaroid positives remove the uncanny valley effect, creating an illusion of authenticity. At the same time, the anachronistic use of Polaroids – which at the time of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse did not exist – emphasizes the fictional nature of the depicted scenes. Familiar characters from the Forever Sultan series, including the Sultan’s white Van cat with heterochromia, Lady Pastry, and Topkapi Palace guards, reappear in photorealistic form, creating a cohesive thread throughout the artist's oeuvre and inviting viewers to explore this vivid and thought-provoking universe.
In Polaroids from the Ottoman Empire Yavuz skillfully merges cutting-edge AI-generated imagery with the traditional world of photography, and the cinematic narrative of the exhibition is enhanced by the deceptive sense of documentation offered by Polaroids. The series blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction and challenges the notion of photographic authenticity.
Yavuz expresses his intention for the exhibition: "I want viewers to almost believe that these photographs depict reality. I hope that by immersing themselves in this alternative universe, viewers are prompted to contemplate on the alarming parallels between Turkish politics of the last 20 years and American politics today. Politics of queerness, oppression, and censorship set against an orientalist, cinematic, and opulent backdrop—because I think imagery of resistance, and thus resistance itself, has a longer shelf life if made beautiful."