Visual Arts Library
And if...(Ashfall installation)
Artist: Robert Barsamian
Date:
1998
Medium: Mixed media (Drawing on lace, twig frame, cast bronze crucifix, old wood shelf, cast bronze Eucharist medallion, cast thumbs-gold leafed)
Dimensions: Dimensions are site specific
Event: Armenian Genocide
Motif:
Remembrance
The works included here comprise the six elements of an installation entitled Ashfall, created to memorialize the over one million Armenians killed by the Turks in 1915. Barsamian's mother and grandmother were among the survivors, and their memories and recollections of their experience have greatly influenced Barsamian's work. The fully assembled installation resembles a chapel with small altars hanging from walls, low benches and gentle lighting. Many of the pieces consist of abstracted drawings based on old photographs of Armenian survivors done with textile marker on lace. The realism of the portraits on this fragile, delicate medium is doubly meaningful as both a visual record of genocide victims and as a physical record. Lacework was a popular trade among Armenian women of the time. Additional pieces consist of artifacts from the past, religious icons, and cast-metal thumbs, which recall the practice of Turkish soldiers who removed the thumbs of the Armenian clergy so they could not annoint their people into Christianity. Assembled together, the installation provides a meditative space in which to reflect on both the suffering and the survival of these people. The empty, calm space suggests an absence of people, while the pieces suggest the persistent memory of a culture. In addition to the physical materials, the artist leads viewers through a story of the works, weaving a unified history for the six elements. " Yes there is a story to be told about each piece!" says Barsamian, "But the bases for all of them come from the love and respect I have for all that my grandmother was and taught me. They are a commemoration to survival. A commemoration to those who suffered, and yet their suffering is still denied today. They are a celebration of culture, history, tradition and hope. I bare my soul with these images, and they exist in the very blood that courses through my veins in my body."
Credits: Photo: Ms. Katherine Snedeker. Research Source 'Project Save' Watertown, MA.
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