Filtered through her perspective as an Iranian-American, Polat’s practice examines history and migration– understanding how cultures shift over time, how they have landed within the American empire, and how these changes dictate her future as an American. Polat’s recent body of work was made with grief at the forefront, translating the deep sense of loss she feels around the widening gap between her heritage and self. These moments of loss have created voids in Polat’s family history, opportunities to weave in her myth-history and bridge their temporal and spatial distances. Polat’s practice utilizes sculpture, drawing, video, and performance to navigate the perpetual evolution of culture and identity.
Within this framework, Polat interrogates topics surrounding labor, power, patriarchy, spirituality, landscape, and extractivism. She mines her personal experiences, local histories, and global narratives, to find points where the intersections between our intimate lives and the external world are most potent. Material research and experimentation are integral parts of Polat’s practice, where she asks questions such as: “What symbols and metaphors of my culture do these reflect?” “How do they transform within the context of contemporary imperialism?” “What industries and infrastructures do they allude to?” “Does the use of these materials impact or lessen my experience of a diasporic disconnect?” Materials such as kevlar, rust, concrete, and ink serve as vehicles for exploration. Polat incorporates discarded objects and ages surfaces to construct a world with a collapsed sense of time– palimpsests containing past, present, and speculative future.
Polat was a 2022 Franconia Sculpture Park Emerging Artist in Residence, and was nominated to attend the Yale: Norfolk School of Art summer residency in 2020. Her work has been exhibited in group shows throughout Los Angeles, New England, and online. She is currently based in her hometown of Los Angeles, CA, and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2021 with a BFA in Sculpture.
Within this framework, Polat interrogates topics surrounding labor, power, patriarchy, spirituality, landscape, and extractivism. She mines her personal experiences, local histories, and global narratives, to find points where the intersections between our intimate lives and the external world are most potent. Material research and experimentation are integral parts of Polat’s practice, where she asks questions such as: “What symbols and metaphors of my culture do these reflect?” “How do they transform within the context of contemporary imperialism?” “What industries and infrastructures do they allude to?” “Does the use of these materials impact or lessen my experience of a diasporic disconnect?” Materials such as kevlar, rust, concrete, and ink serve as vehicles for exploration. Polat incorporates discarded objects and ages surfaces to construct a world with a collapsed sense of time– palimpsests containing past, present, and speculative future.
Polat was a 2022 Franconia Sculpture Park Emerging Artist in Residence, and was nominated to attend the Yale: Norfolk School of Art summer residency in 2020. Her work has been exhibited in group shows throughout Los Angeles, New England, and online. She is currently based in her hometown of Los Angeles, CA, and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2021 with a BFA in Sculpture.