The artworks created by La Jolla resident and UC San Diego professor Pinar Yoldas may seem like science fiction, and for now, they are.
But her hope is that one day they will become science fact.
As part of her first U.S. solo exhibition, “Synaptic Sculpture,” at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego in Balboa Park, the Turkey native is showcasing her interactive and kinetic pieces, sculptures, animation, robotics, architectural works, music, sketches and more. Many of the pieces have a scientific element.
“The message I want to convey is that the most precious thing we can have is our mind, body and curiosity,” said Yoldas, an associate professor in visual arts at UCSD in La Jolla. “There is no distinction between art and science if you are curious enough. Science is a very creative field when you think about it. So a lot of the work in the show originated from a science base.”
Examples of her work include an artificial intelligence model housed in a cat sculpture built to show love and affection to those who interact with it. There’s also DNA extracted from a genetically modified organism, a pendulum that sends a scent-based hormone into the air, a photo bioreactor system that grows algae that can produce biodegradable plastic, examples of that plastic and more.
“With these photo bioreactors, we are not only cleaning up the air but also creating plastics that can redefine our economy,” Yoldas said. “If all plastic was biodegradable, our landfills would look very differently. We want to set it up somewhere here so they can run these. I see this as functional art.”
She added that she hopes to one day turn the pieces into usable equipment to carry out the scientific functions for which they were designed.
To help viewers be more open to her concepts, Yoldas drew on her interest in architecture to create a welcoming space for the exhibition.
“The show is a way to communicate this beautiful research that is being done and encourage people to ask questions about the future,” she said. “I also see art and science coming together as an empowering thing. You learn and then have access to information.
“I want to make parts of the space cozy so people could relax there and open up to become more curious. You have to offer physiological safety so they can take in everything there, because there are a lot of science concepts. It’s interactive and playful.”
Yoldas, a first-generation immigrant, has been making art since before she could speak. “I would go through a sketchbook a day as a child. I would draw on the walls and on the furniture, and my parents always let me do it. That’s how I started. I was given the freedom,” she said. “I had my first exhibition when I was 5 years old, when I had 4,000 drawings finished.”
For her college major, she opted for the sciences but says she was “always going back and forth between science and art.”
Though Yoldas has had 100 shows around the world with her scientific art, her first solo show in the United States has her “so excited that it is finally happening.”
“I have lived in the U.S. for 18 years … so my excitement cannot be contained,” she said.
“Synaptic Sculpture” continues through Sunday, June 23, at ICA San Diego’s Central location, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. For more information, visit icasandiego.org, call (619) 236-0011 or email [email protected]. ◆
