Meet: Danial Ismail and Türkan Yasar

Danial Ismail and Türkan Yasar are interior architects whose practice and education were quite technical. They chose to study their master’s in Interior and Spatial Design at Chelsea College of Arts to immerse themselves in a more creative and expressive manner.

They were recently invited to take part in the 2nd Kommagene Biennial in Turkey. The Kommagene Biennale is a contemporary art event that features site-specific installations around the Euphrates River, in south-central Turkey. The biennial has a focus on land art, with most of the artworks being displayed outdoors.

Danial and Türkan spoke to us about their experience creating their piece, Monument of Being, for the biennial.

You both graduated from Chelsea College of Arts in 2014. What did you enjoy about studying your MAs in Interior and Spatial Design? 

During our MA, being in Chelsea was a fantastic experience both academically and for social interactions; being able to meet students from all around the world with different backgrounds but a shared interest in exploring spatial design. The MA structure, a combination of coursework and critical research is very helpful to explore alternative potentials, methods and theories.

What were your highlights from your time at Chelsea?

The lectures we had from invited speakers as well as our MA tutors have broadened our horizons for spatial design, in addition to a fantastic peer to peer learning ecosystem between different courses. We also benefited so much from UAL’s extensive library collection, comprehensive workshops, industry partners and neighbouring Tate Britain for the occasional visit across the street.

What drew you both to interior and spatial design?

We are both interior architects with a quite technical based education and practice. The course at Chelsea provided us an opportunity to immerse in a more creative and expressive manner. Group tutorials were very insightful, exposing us to new references and ideas. The combination of tutors with various expertise led to an enriched studio experience which was great for a 1 year course.

Can you tell us about your careers’ so far? 

In addition to our practice, we are both very active in contemporary local and international art scenes in Turkey and Malaysia. Türkan recently exhibited her work 'Clash, Coerce, Cast(e)', a visual representation of her barbed wire sculpture series. Danial curated the 2023 edition of Kuala Lumpur Design Festival, and a parallel exhibition 'Domestic Culture' in addition to producing art objects.

You’re both involved in the 2nd Kommagene Biennial in Turkey. How did this come about?

One of the things that we are always looking out for is to do site specific installations. The Kommogene Biennial was a perfect opportunity to venture into the rich historical and natural terrain of southern Turkey. We were invited by the biennial director and curator to propose an installation for the ancient city of Perre (Pirin), which is one of the five major cities of the Commogene Empire.

Your site specific installation is called Monument of Being. What was the inspiration for the piece? 

The inspiration for the Monument of Being, tries to connect several elements, contexts, observations and materiality. Elements of our thought process includes stitching the history of the ancient city of Pirin, the 2023 Adiyaman earthquake, and visual references from Koudelka's Wall series.

The narrative of the site specific installation responds to Pirin's historical olive oil production industry which was recently revived again in modern Adiyaman. The form is designed to appear monumental in size, but the walls are porous, creating openings to frame the surrounding context. The interior is lined with galvanised metal strips to reflect sky, oil and ground colours to create active gradient lining in the space, presenting life, movement and fitting the biennial theme of 'rising'.

What is next for you both?

Apart from experimenting with AI technology, we are also looking into establishing works that celebrate cultural sustainability and its contemporary iterations. We are also looking at opportunities to do collaborations with British artists to produce installations in indoor and/or in urban sites, venturing into urban interiors.

Connect

• Instagram: @turkansyasar
• Website:  danialismail.tumblr.com