Beldan Sezen
An interview with Beldan Sezen, one of the winners in our Three-in-One Chapbook Contest and author of Zakkum, the graphic murder mystery (£12.99, about €15). We caught up with Beldan in her gorgeous treehouse-like apartment in Amsterdam… we weren’t actually there, but we’ve seen it, and Skype is almost as good as the real thing. Whenever we speak, she’s preparing for another new exhibition, so we had to ask…
This interview with Beldan Sezen can be downloaded as a pdf
Are you a full time artist, or do you do other things?
no, i have “side”- jobs. i freelance as a video-clip maker for a dance-production house and as an image manipulator for magazines and when times are really hard i work as a personal assistant for a man living in a wheelchair. Jobs that give me space to do my art work.
How long have you been an artist?
hm… dunno quite a while. think the very first piece i ever made was when i was 22. i spontaneously used to do a painting or art piece, combining words and image or objects, to give to a friend or to decorate my house but it never occurred to me that i could develop this in a more professional way or see myself as an artist. the moon and the stars was already far enough.
so well, officially let’s say the last ten years. the deep wish and manifestation into the world was indeed new year’s eve 1999 when i failed to draw a comic story due to lacking the knowledge of the craft (basic drawing) yet it was all i ever wanted to do. that’s when i decided to find a school, a course, books and learn.
Tell us a bit about Zakkum and how it came about.
The idea for Zakkum came to me in 2005. i was sitting on a park bench and thinking about my aunt who had past away a couple of years earlier, and that the family described her as “not being herself any more,” that she ranted a lot and was kind of mean. and how i remembered her the last time i saw her prior to her death, being rather witty and smiling to me. Old and weary yes, but i won’t forget this twinkle in her eyes that i saw back then. well, from that memory i spun my story. the what if… what if she didn’t die of natural causes, etc. i love murder-mysteries, so i thought that’s a great one to make a comic-murder-mystery (the term ‘graphic murder mystery’ came later, when the world went ‘graphic novel’).
Your book deals with the complexity of living away from one’s country and family… can you say a bit about this and how autobiographical your work is?
dunno, strange question. all work in my opinion is – or starts with an autobiographical moment, you can either then continue to be autobiographical or go into fiction. would be a nice discussion over a cup of coffee…
Your work in general tackles the place of women in the family and the world at large, and also queer women in particular… can you say a bit about this?
I have always felt way outside of the mainstream, refusing to accept its forced places of stylized identities, but being out of it has been my strength and my freedom. Anger, humor, and curiosity are the impetus to my work. That, and literally sticking out my tongue to all of those contemporary concepts of culture, ethnicity, beauty, body, gender.
Are there other themes that you are interested in exploring in your work?
Well mainly i “translate” my point of view into my work. Relating to the thoughts of Alain Badiou: “An artwork is a subject point of an artistic truth, a situated inquiry about the truth that it locally actualizes or of which it is a finite fragment.” That’s where I see my responsibility as an artist. And with this, the urge and importance of art and artists is very much in need in my opinion.
What’s your daily routine – and your antidote to writer’s block?
Don’t think i really have a daily routine. except maybe for coffee in the (later) morning with something like an hour to “arrive” into the day and my sunday-funday. which means i have no dates or see anybody but do whatever comes into my mind. like a whole day with myself. as for writer’s block, i dunno, walking in the park helps. and sometimes just accepting that it is just not the time and place for the work to come out. forcing never works.
Did you study art and writing?
No, i am an autodidact.
Have you ever been part of a writers’ or artists’ group?
Like what? Don’t really see an artist group happening at moment. I do have artist friends with whom i exchange, discuss, view etc. art but I wouldn’t call it an artist group.
Do you work with the music on or off? When it’s on, what music do you listen to?
Depends. Funny actually, a couple of my drawings on paper with ink came while listening to music. Parts of “girls” happened while listening to Peaches. I draw standing and moving around the table… and sometimes i integrate a song’s lyrics, like from Death Weather or Judy Garland or, for demons, Harold Arlen’s “It’s Only a Paper Moon” (Ella Fitzgerald’s version) which was a basic for putting the story together. But i can’t work listening to a regular radio station, no. Makes my mind mushy. So for me it’s either a certain song or artist or no music – ah the lovely sound of silence.
Would you consider making a film out of Zakkum? Or any other format?
No, haven’t considered a film. Yet Zakkum was shown in a museum space in 2009. All 46 pages installed as large A0 prints on vellum paper. Like visitors could “walk through” a comic-story.
What part of making art do you struggle with the most?
To continue despite all the inner doubts about the “value of my work” and economical circumstances.
What do you love about being an artist?
Being it.
What gets you excited about other people’s work? And who has inspired you over the years?
Seeing, being with art excites me in general, even if i don’t necessary agree with it. when art is there it makes my mind bubble and tingle and i like that. I enjoy a well-placed simple line which can express a lot. A lot of artists have inspired me. a lot. but i admire Nancy Spero (for her determined outspokenness), Jean-Michel Basquiat (his drawings, i love his drawings), Paul Klee (for his analytical playfullnes), Shirin Neshat, Charles M. Schulz (for making me laugh & cry with merely two dots, a line and a circle), Bill Waterson, Mark Rothko
What are the three things you (personally) need as a writer/artist?
Space, time and the continuum.
Who were the people who encouraged you to be an artist? and inspired you, too?
friends have encouraged me through the years. starting with a dear friend and fellow artist, Jacquie Caldwell, who saw my talents glimpsing through way back in my early twenties.
If you weren’t an artist or a writer, what might you be?
deep sea-diver or a fish.
What’s next? Any plans? projects you’re working on? things in the pipeline?
Right now i am preparing my show, an overview of my work since 2006 for which i will draw a huge comic-impression of Amsterdam. So that’s my current challenge. □
