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Critics' Forum Article - 6.07.08

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  • Critics' Forum Article - 6.07.08

    Critics' Forum
    Visual Arts
    Sophia Gasparian: Engaging the Art Scene
    By Ramela Grigorian Abbamontian

    A young emerging talent in the Los Angeles art scene is Sophia
    Gasparian (b. 1972), whose presence in the Armenian art scene,
    however, has been subdued. The fact may be attributed to her style
    (raw, cartoonish, seemingly simple) and materials (spray paint,
    grocery bags, stencils, stickers), which have challenged many members
    of the community, who tend to ask, "How old is the artist?" or simply
    conclude "Well, her colors are interesting," as was overheard by the
    author at one of Gasparian's exhibitions.

    Yet Gasparian's seemingly simple compositions and vibrant colors
    engage the viewer and necessitate in return an intentional - an
    active - engagement with the image being presented, an exchange ripe
    with socio-political implications. A closer look at Gasparian's work
    will demonstrate how its emotional resonance with the viewer helps
    create the context and the call to activism that its subjects depict.


    Born and raised in what she calls a "country that no longer exists,"
    Sophia Gasparian left Soviet Armenia in December of 1987, making her
    new home in East Hollywood. Her memories and experiences of living
    in Soviet Armenia, which include being (as she puts it) "immersed in
    propaganda and confronted by the effects of oppression," inform her
    work conceptually. Those experiences sometimes also trickle into
    Gasparian's compositions in the form of characters that once
    inhabited the pages of her childhood alphabet books, as in the
    painting Let's Not Chat About Despair.

    Even though she received early art training in Yerevan, Armenia, it
    was during her training in the United States (B.A. in Theater Arts
    with an Emphasis on Film and Video from UC Santa Cruz and M.F.A in
    Fine Art Filmmaking from San Francisco Art Institute) that allowed
    her to explore her own identity, particularly regarding issues of
    cultural dislocation.

    These explorations engendered her first installation series "Dia De
    Los Muertos: Armenian Genocide 1915" (1999-2003). The series
    considered themes such as the Turkish government's denial of the
    Armenian Genocide, Armenians' responsibility to honor the victims,
    and the inexpressible nature of the calamity itself. One poignant
    example from the installation is What Have You Done to Assist the
    Armenians? (2001), a mixed media painting in which, against the
    patchy red semblance of a blood-stained wall, a shoeless orphaned
    girl (re-appropriated from Japanese Manga artist Yoshitomo Nara)
    locks eyes with the viewer and angrily demands to know the answer to
    the question that comprises the painting's title.

    Gasparian's work asks another, and equally compelling, question: Who
    is the viewer? Gasparian could be addressing much of humanity, many
    of whom stand by, ignorant and helpless, as mass murders continue to
    take place everywhere. Considering the work was created and
    exhibited in the United States, however, it might just as easily be
    directed at the host country of many Armenians, which has yet to
    acknowledge the "massacres" as premeditated genocide. Gasparian
    could also be querying her own people, wondering if Armenians -
    herself included - have done their part to remember the calamity,
    honor its victims, and ensure its recognition.

    In all of these instances, Gasparian is clearly calling for a revival
    of consciousness and a recommitment to one's sense of
    responsibility. To intensify the urgency of such a call, Gasparian
    has incorporated "signifiers" such as the orphan's shoeless feet and
    the life-size knife that inhabits the space behind her - the former
    referencing the long distances walked by Armenians during the
    deportation and the latter denoting the instrument of genocide, which
    in turn points to the Turkish star and crescent. The orphan's plight
    also embodies that of the Armenian nation in the 20th and 21st
    centuries, while her determined gaze, directed at all viewers,
    reenacts the clear call to action that is at the center of
    Gasparian's work.


    "While my previous series addressed the evils of history, my recent
    work confronts the evils of society," says Gasparian about the
    installation series that followed, entitled "Confronting the Face of
    Evil" (2005-06). The series explores issues such as ethnocentrism,
    racism, sexism, violence, feminism, abuse, and the obsession with
    body image, as in the painting Fat & Ugly (2006), where the young
    girl - neither fat nor ugly according to today's standards - stands
    with downcast eyes and forlorn expression amidst the junk food
    dancing idly and temptingly around her.

    Her two most recent series (both of which are in-progress) are
    entitled "Triumph" and "Celebration," because Gasparian believes they
    aptly "follow sorrow/grief and confrontation/resolution." It
    appears that in these series, Gasparian has transcended the pain of
    the past and the problems of the present and instead offers viewers a
    vision of the simple pleasures of the present along with the subtle
    promise of the future. The young characters who had in the earlier
    works suffered persecution and were subject to harsh societal
    expectations have now been transformed into self-sufficient
    individuals "exercising their rights and enjoying being alive." For
    example, the young girl in Girl with Piggy Bank (from the Triumph
    series) optimistically considers her future by purposefully, in fact
    quite literally, saving money for it.

    As its title conveys, the "Celebration" series, when complete, will
    celebrate each month of the year by focusing on an astereotypical
    signifier relevant to that month. For example, Miss October is
    identified by a persimmon tree ripe with fruit rather than the more
    common Halloween costume or pumpkin patch. Other characters in the
    series include the wryly titled "Miss Genocide" and "Miss Cherry
    Blossoms". In this way, Gasparian's characteristically
    unconventional approach reconstructs the calendar cycle from a fresh,
    sometimes ironic, perspective that once again engages viewers, in
    perhaps discovering similar moments of celebration available to them.


    Gasparian's perception of her role as an artist, in her own words,
    has to do more with engaging and activating the viewer's emotions
    than with activism per se:

    While human rights, ethnic dislocation, social identity and women's
    progress form my everyday thinking and influence my art, I do not
    consider myself an art activist. My intention with each painting is
    to trigger an emotional reaction and alter the perspective of the
    viewer through illustration of a personal viewpoint. I simply strive
    to illustrate subjects that interest me.

    But in illustrating socio-political issues and aiming to "alter the
    perspective of the viewer," it may well be argued that Gasparian is
    inherently, if unwillingly, assuming the role of art activist. In
    fact, one might say that art's agency alone renders it activist in
    society. Therefore, while Gasparian rejects the label, her inclusion
    of questions or other text in the works and her desire to create a
    dialogue with the viewers allow her works to effect change, or at
    least present the opportunity for it. By engaging viewer's emotions,
    Gasparian's unconventional pieces have the potential to raise
    awareness, ignite self-reflection, and even spur the viewer to action.


    Gasparian's work can be found in the private collections of many
    individuals well-known in the art scene, including Dahlia Elsayed,
    Sam McCay, and Joan Agajanian Quinn. Her poster of Miss Genocide is
    archived at the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Venice,
    California. Gasparian's work has also been featured in a number of
    galleries and exhibitions in Southern California, including Cactus
    Gallery (Eagle Rock), Arroyo Arts Collective (Highland Park), Avenue
    50 Studio (Highland Park), and Gallery 825 (West Hollywood), to name
    only a few.


    All Rights Reserved: Critics' Forum, 2008. Exclusive to the Armenian
    Reporter.

    Ramela Grigorian Abbamontian is an Assistant Professor of Art History
    at Pierce College. She is also a PhD candidate in Art History at
    UCLA.

    You can reach her or any of the other contributors to Critics' Forum
    at [email protected]. This and all other articles published
    in this series are available online at www.criticsforum.org. To sign
    up for a weekly electronic version of new articles, go to
    www.criticsforum.org/join. Critics' Forum is a group created to
    discuss issues relating to Armenian art and culture in the Diaspora.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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