The Homefront: Everything Follows the Art in Sarp Kerem Yavuz’s Sunny One-Bedroom
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“After looking at—no exaggeration—80 different apartments, I walked in here and saw the high ceilings and big windows and knew it was the dream apartment,” says Sarp Kerem Yavuz. He’s standing in the middle of his decadent but practical living room, smiling like a cat that got a great deal on a canary.
The actual cat is somewhere nearby. Yavuz, best known (and frequently exhibited) as an art photographer working with Polaroids, lives alone in the sense that he doesn’t have human roommates, but he does have the stray he adopted and brought back from Turkey. They share the uptown space, which doubles a home and a studio and triples as a conversation piece. It’s a cleverly constructed one-bedroom full of adjustable surfaces and wheeled furniture that can be pushed to the corners when company comes by.
The art doesn’t roll. The art is the stable thing around which Yavuz has built a life.
“The first rule is the art goes up first, everything else follows,” he says. “I collect a lot, I also make a lot of art, I swap with artists friends, and whenever i’ve been in a fair that’s been good for me, I pay it forward and buy something from that fair—it’s good ‘art karma.’”
Yavuz gave SPY a tour of his home and the things keeps inside of it.
Lazzoni Sofa
“The couch is actually a result of my friendship with the owners of this Turkish decor brand Lazzoni. I reached out to them looking to collaborate on an exhibition years ago, I wanted to put one of their sofas in the exhibition space. The timing didn’t work out, but we both decided to get one of each other’s pieces afterwards anyway.”
Arhaus Ottoman
“I’ve loved Arhaus for many years. I got my first ‘adult’ piece of furniture from them years ago. I used to go to their place behind Restoration Hardware and see their stuff. They’ve since shut down during the pandemic, but I love this ottoman they made. I wanted a statement piece, and something that had Turkish influences, but that wouldn’t pull from the art on the walls.”
Polaroid Printer Lab
“The Polaroid Lab is their second iteration of the Instant Lab project. The idea was to create a mechanism that could print polaroid images from their phones. I love it. I try to condense digital images into polaroid form to create that fantastical narrative. My latest body of work, ‘Polaroids from the Ottoman Empire,’ is entirely AI-generated. The photos give the appearance of a fictional journey. We want to believe polaroids as documents depicting the truth. The show of these images will be at PALO Gallery on Bond Street starting June 16th. As far as I’m aware, they’re the world’s first AI-generated polaroids.”
Rolling Storage Cart
“This cart was such a find. I really needed something practical and mobile that would allow me to make my lego pieces since there’s so many different colors and shapes. It’s fun when you’re a kid and sifting through bricks to find the right one, but when you’re producing art from it, having a system to stay organized is a game changer. I can wheel this into a closet when I have company, and then bring it out to work. Most of my work has Ottoman Empire or orientalist influences. I do various forms of photography, but since 2017, I’ve been making Turkish tile patterns by converting them into pixel art, and then build them from Lego bricks.“
Bottle Lamp Kit
“I host art salons at my apartment once a month with friends. It usually starts out relatively reasonable and then turns quite rowdy by three a.m. Sometimes people bring in strange liquor bottles, and this one intrigued me. It’s a sake bottle. I stripped away the label and found these kits on amazon that were ‘build your own lamp’ kits that I used to make it.”
Polaroid Art Series
“These were digitally shot—in person—as an extension of photographs taken in Turkish baths around the world. They’re ‘real,’ if such a distinction can be made. Some of them are on display at Zero Bond as part of a residency with Apostrophe Gallery.”
Adjustable Table Hack
“The table was twice the width that it was and was made of two planks of sturdy wood. I think it was an IKEA dining room table. My problem was that it was taking up too much room in the living room. I also had these barstools I never use. I thought I would use the stools as the legs and just one of the planks and make my own table that’s height adjustable—it’s invaluable for an artist.”
Home Cat Door
“The cat door is from a pet shop a block away from my house and I have a crush on the guy who works there. I bought it from him in person so I had an excuse to see him again. The important thing for me was to find a way to hide the cat’s litter and offer her some privacy. By putting it in the cupboard, I’m able to minimize the mess. There’s a little motion sensor light in there too for her.”
Soho Home Cat Bowls
“I have this collection of bowls and plates from Soho Home. I’m always looking for chic cat bowls. They’re always made with gimmicky things like mice or whiskers on them, but I wanted the cat to have an elevated dining experience, one that also matches the rest of the apartment.”
Neon Art
“I had this body of work produced with neon and I really wanted to bring one with me to New York. I was fairly sure that if I shipped it, it would arrive in pieces. I dismantled it, and wrapped each neon tube in towels and used a hard shell suitcase as the method of transport. There was a lot of wishing and prayer involved in putting this into the cargo hold of a plane. I still cant believe it survived a 12 hour flight. It’s from a body of work called ‘Curse of the Forever Sultan,’ criticizing the totalitarian state of Turkey, and was the first series that got me into trouble. After the show ended, the government raided my gallery. It’s a badge of honor and pride that they’re aware they’re being criticized.”