Khachkar

Khachkar (2024), explores displacement by playing with the tension that arises when a site specific, localized object is suspended. As a deeply important piece of cultural heritage, the carved khachkar steles are scattered across the lands on which Armenians have historically resided, functioning as commemorative markers. They sit in the open, freestanding, touching the land and the earth. Unfortunately, due to the occupation of the land and the displacement of Armenian peoples, many of these ancient relics have been destroyed or are at risk of destruction.

I carved this wooden khachkar mostly by hand, embossing a bronze age Armenian symbol of the solar system at its center. As a member of the Armenian diaspora who has no remaining connection to the land, neither through living relatives nor through a strong connection to the culture, this piece is representative of my personal cultural experience.

By suspending the khachkar in order to invoke a sense of displacement, the work plays with the tension that arises between an object which is built to mark land and the floor over which it hovers. The solar system symbol furthers this contradiction, playing with the duality of land/air, particular/universal, home as site specific/home as mobile and flexible.

The prints located in the shadow of the khachkar have been created using images of the soil of land formerly inhabited by Armenians, specifically the ground in an area with many khachkars which have recently been destroyed. In abstracting and distorting the original image during the printing process, the work further disrupts the connection between itself and the land which it references, speaking to the diasporic experience and an obscured collective memory.