Artist Statement

TRANCENDING THE LIMITS OF CONVENTIONAL SPACE

TASH believes that the role of the contemporary artist is that of informant and educator. I primarily consider myself a sculptor. I draw from my exceptional formal training from such Mentors as Judith Brassard Brown, George Gabin, George Greenamyer, Lorraine Tashjian and Aurel Peterson to conceive my vision. I also take from my life experience, family relationships and ethnicity to convey my artistic expression. I use these aspects of my life to express my political, social and moral ideas. The driving force of my most recent work is the displacement, anger and sorrow I feel as an Armenian-American man in the 21st century. I feel it is my ethnic and artistic obligation to inform the world of the systematic extermination of the Armenian People by the Turkish Government in the early part of the 20th century, THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE. I attempt to do this through personal experience, family history or more accurately, the lack there of. In my recent work, “THE ALL AMERICAN GIRLS”, I attempt to illustrate the historical vivisection of my female Armenian Ancestors. In the modern context I depict these crimes against humanity through the metaphorical, literal and surgical vivisection of woman by the hand of advertising, media, the cosmetic and fashion industries and violence.

My interest in jewelry has been a lifelong passion. My first memories were of my mothers beautiful, shinny things. They fascinated me, captivated me in such a strong fashion. I loved the metal, the feel of gold, platinum and silver. I loved the mystery and wonder of the diamonds, pearl sand rubies. All of these wonderful pieces held significance, history and sentiment.

In my sculptural work, I address the events of the Armenian genocide and there effect on my life and the world. I have remained a formalist in my metal work, until now, I have not seen the need to bring my political, social and personal issues into my jewelry. It has remained separate in my self-expression. My sculptural work has been about something. The point of that work is to make a statement, no, scream a statement.

The main problem I faced with the sculpture was telling a story with found objects, which held some historical and political reference to the Armenian genocide. The fact that very few people know of its existence made that story a difficult one to tell, given the lack of public knowledge or exposure. I worked with a variety of materials, at first giving too much visual information which led to visual over stimulation. Through an arduous journey of self-discovery, I eventually learned how to edit. Throughout this process, my metal work remained unaffected by this epiphany. I now want to explore this artistic statement in my metal work in the form of reliquary. The idea of precious objects being contained in precious objects is very appealing to me, I wish to explore this sacred mission and create a body of work, which embodies these ideas while conveying the message of the genocide and its effects.

I intend to do this by making reference to the forced death marches into the desert of the Armenian people by the Turks and Kurds. These marches were supposed to relocation trips, yet they were a journey to nowhere, to death. Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly woman and children were forced into their hell on earth. All because of religious differences and jealousy. This is where the term “starving Armenian” was born.

I feel the best way to portray this is by creating a series of objects, either to be worn, or bore. As a symbol of strength, survival, conviction and courage. I feel the footprint is a strong symbol to use as my vehicle. It is poignant and recognizable. These footprints would be reproseid in silver, and they would be containers for precieved sacred objects of faith and life. This will not be the morning of a passage, yet the defiance of an inhuman atrocity. They will be symbols of healing. The footprints will form the top of these 3 objects, they will be reprossed and hinged to contain sand, pieces of the Armenian bible and some symbol of love, life or death, this is yet undecided. I feel working in this method I will be challenging my skills as a metal smith and sculpture. These tourniquets are difficult for me and I wish to master them. I will be far away from my comfort zone, yet still working within me language and tradition. I am looking at a lot of ancient Armenian artifacts for inspiration; we have a long tradition of fine metal craftsmanship and a treasure of surviving objects.

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