Category: 2023

Alberto Lule, "Am I Truly Free (a)," 2022. Collage on plexi. 18 x 24 inches. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo credit: Andrew Girosetto

GLENDALE—The ReflectSpace Gallery, Glendale Library, Arts & Culture, and Craft Contemporary present “Tactics of Erasure and Rewriting Histories,” an exhibition that highlights diverse artworks documenting acts of reclamation and removal as a process of making history.

The five exhibiting artists – Fafnir Adamites, Andre Keichian, Alberto Lule, Miller Robinson, and Ryat Yezbick – use archival and forensic materials, found objects, and casting to investigate how state-sanctioned censorships create a system of oppression that impacts their sense of identity. Their works explore the questions: What role does erasure play in informing one’s place in history? What other forms of representation can capture the fluidity of marginalized identities, the pains of inherited traumas, and the unstable truth of history?  

Alberto Lule and Ryat Yezbick use the language of power to address the inherent violence in systems that seeks to divide, categorize, and criminalize by instilling fear and centering on difference. Lule examines the control and manipulation of bodies in the US carceral system and questions who is granted authority over the bodies of others. He creates self-portraits following systems of identification and tools used by the police on incarcerated people. Reminiscent of the Bertillon system, developed in the 19th century to classify “the criminal’s” physiology by French policeman Alphonse Bertillon, Lule’s piece, “Am I Truly Free?” (2022) is a triptych composed of different identifiers based on the artist’s prison-issued identification card.

“Am I Truly Free? (a),” on view in the exhibition, is a collage on plexiglass that multiplies the copy of Lule’s prison-issued identification card, sectioning the artist’s face to his eyes, alternating them with graphs and excerpts on eugenics and reductive terms pertaining to criminal physiology. His Investigation (2019 -) series abstracts the artist’s body to traces of positions in which the police had placed him during his arrest. The positions are revealed through forensic ink blurring, rather than codifying, the body it seeks to identify.  

Ryat Yezbick creates a blurry line between enunciator and enunciated, victim and perpetrator in their video installation, growth lies, and pack of truth (2022). News footage of the University of Texas tower shooting in 1966 has been edited to give space for an alternative universe in which vulnerable masculinity may alter the course of the future. This film, the first in a series from Yezbick’s growing archive of news coverage of mass shootings in the United States, presents a speculative narrative about a mysterious creature that spreads like a virus causing its hosts to go into a temporary state of physiological confusion. Housed in a tombstone, the film is a haunting reminder of the psychological trappings of fear and the objectification of the “Other.” The artist’s background as a cultural anthropologist informs their practice as they engage with the impact of digital surveillance technology on the collective American psyche and sense of co-responsibility.  

In contrast to the abundance of information in Lule’s and Yezbick’s works, Andre Keichian, Miller Robinson, and Fafnir Adamites seek to give shape to histories that have been erased. Andre Keichian’s Salt in the I (2019) is a lyrical mapping of their family’s diasporic journey from the war-ravaged Middle East to France, Argentina, and the United States through the manipulation of their family photo album. Using salt and water to develop the negatives and bend wood for the frames, the different elements of the work collapse topographies of ocean, land, and temporalities.

The artist stretches the possibility of the archive to blend truth and fiction and insert the narrative of their Armenian-born Argentinian grandfather, who marks the beginning of their family’s migration as a stand-in ancestral queer. The act of speculation also comes from the influence of the Armenian Genocide on the artist’s family’s history of migration, the impact of which is still not fully recognized by the Turkish government. The artist asks, “If this happening can exist without the privilege of becoming official history, then what new alternative possibilities may emerge within modes of art and narrative within this gap?”  

Initially a juried exhibition at Craft Contemporary, the new iteration at ReflectSpace expands on the original show by presenting the artworks in the context of a municipal institution, the Glendale Central Library. As a hybrid exhibition space between gallery and archive, ReflectSpace offers an interface for the artworks to exceed their roles as representational objects, to become alternative forms of knowledge. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, an updated reading list, and an educational supplement.  

Reflectspace is located inside Central Library at 222 East Harvard Street. The exhibit will be on display from April 8 to May 28, with a free opening reception on Saturday, April 8 from 6 to 8 p.m.

“Tactics of Erasure and Rewriting Histories” originated at Craft Contemporary and is organized by Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai, Craft Contemporary Exhibitions Manager. This collaboration between ReflectSpace and Craft Contemporary is supported by the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture and the City of Glendale, CA.  

ReflectSpace is an inclusive exhibition gallery designed to explore and reflect on major human atrocities, genocides, civil rights violations, and other social injustices. Immersive in conception, ReflectSpace is a hybrid space that is both experiential and informative, employing art, technology, and interactive media to reflect on the past and present of Glendale’s communal fabric and interrogate current-day global human rights issues. ReflectSpace is housed in Glendale Central Library and online at ReflectSpace.org, it is support in part through the efforts of the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Trust (GLACT).  

Known as the “Jewel City,” Glendale is the fourth largest city of Los Angeles County. With a population of more than 200,000, Glendale is a thriving cosmopolitan city that is rich in history, culturally diverse, and offers nearly 50 public parks, and easy access to a municipal airport. It is the home to a vibrant business community, with major companies in healthcare, entertainment, manufacturing, retail, and banking.    

Founded in 1907, the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Department includes eight neighborhood libraries including the Brand Library & Art Center, a regional visual arts and music library and performance venue housed in the historic 1904 mansion of Glendale pioneer Leslie C. Brand, and the Central Library, a 93,000 square foot center for individuals and groups to convene, collaborate and create. The department also serves as the chief liaison to the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission which works to continually transform Glendale into an ever-evolving arts destination. Glendale Library Arts & Culture is supported in part through the efforts of the Glendale Library Arts & Culture Trust (GLACT). For more information visit GlendaleLAC.org, or contact Library, Arts & Culture at 818-548-2021 or via email at [email protected].  

Located on Los Angeles’ historic Miracle Mile since 1965, Craft Contemporary reveals the potential of craft to educate, captivate, provoke, and empower. With a focus on contemporary art made from craft media and processes, Craft Contemporary presents dynamic exhibitions by established and emerging artists and designers who are often underrepresented in larger art institutions. Through a robust roster of regular programs and events, Craft Contemporary offers creative opportunities for the public to participate in hands-on workshops led by professional artists. Craft Contemporary cultivates an environment for people in Los Angeles to deepen their relationship to art, creativity, and one another. For more information, visit www.craftcontemporary.org.

The International Armenian Literary Alliance, in partnership with h-pem, announced the third annual Young Armenian Poets Awards, a contest for exceptional Armenian writers between the ages of 14 and 18.

Over the past two years, the Young Armenian Poets Awards has provided a space for young Armenian writers from all over the world to express themselves and have their voices heard on the global stage. This year is no exception.

This year’s entrants are asked to submit work that grapples with the notion of visibility as it relates to Armenian identity and experience. How visible are Armenia and Armenian issues on the world stage? What is the extent to which we feel visible as Armenians in our respective communities outside of Armenia?

Submissions – to be read by IALA board members and judges Gregory Djanikian, Armine Iknadossian, and Raffi Wartanian – are encouraged from any young writer who identifies as Armenian, no matter gender identity and _expression_, sexual orientation, disability, creed, national origin, socio-economic class, educational background, personal style/appearance, citizenship and immigration status, or political affiliation.

Monetary prizes will be granted for the top three poems, which will be published online on the h-pem website and shared on IALA’s social media platforms in the fall. Winning authors will be invited to read their work at IALA’s annual Emerging Writers Showcase.

“Literature is a vital element of a people and a culture⎯we are our stories,” says founder Olivia Katrandjian. “As writers, we must support each other if we want to thrive not only as individuals, but as a literary community. As a people, Armenians must support our writers if we want the world to listen to our stories. IALA will provide a platform through which young Armenian writers can be heard.”

“We continue to honor and create a platform for the next generation of exciting Armenian poets who have so much to teach us,” says contest director Alan Semerdjian, “and we’re thankful for those who will spread the word about this fantastic opportunity.”

“Being involved in the Young Armenian Poets contest gave me a way to put the feelings I had been struggling to understand for years into flowing sentences and share them with the world, enabling me to see how my words can truly affect others and touch their hearts,” says 2022 YAPA winner, Ani Apresyan. “Winning recognition and hearing what other like-minded Armenian youth have to say fills me with indescribable hope for the future that Armenia is taking steps towards fostering.”

For more details, full submission guidelines, and more information on past winners, please visit IALA’s website, or contact Alan Semerdjian, Young Armenian Poets Awards Founder and Director, at [email protected].

The International Armenian Literary Alliance is a nonprofit organization launched in 2021 that supports and celebrates writers by fostering the development and distribution of Armenian literature in the English language. A network of Armenian writers and their champions, IALA gives Armenian writers a voice in the literary world through creative, professional, and scholarly advocacy.

H-Pem (stylized as h-pem) is a collaborative English-language Armenian cultural online platform and publication established by the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society. Launched in 2019, h-pem’s mission is to reach Armenian communities around the world and help Armenians — particularly Armenian youth — (re)connect with their homeland and culture in new, creative, and cooperative ways.

Black Lawrence Press will publish Arthur Kayzakian’s debut collection, “The Book of Redacted Paintings,” on May 26. The book, which intertwines poetry, prose, and visual art, takes place in the present day yet alludes to the Iranian Revolution.

In “The Book of Redacted Paintings,” the narrative arc follows a boy in search of his father’s painting, but it is unclear whether the painting exists or not. The book, a poetry collection, is also populated by a series of paintings. Some are real, incomplete, and/or missing, while most are redacted from reality. The withdrawn paintings concept is the emotional arc of the book, a combination of wishing one could paint the pieces he/she/they envision and the feeling of something torn out of a person due to a traumatic upbringing. A sort of erasure ekphrasis, to foresee artwork that was never painted.

“Formally various, narratively propulsive, and relentlessly earnest in its psychospiritual excavations, Arthur Kayzakian’s ‘The Book of Redacted Paintings’ is a sincere achievement. That it represents the author’s first full-length collection makes it even more remarkable. In one poem, the sound of gunfire “splits the wind in half.” In another, “It rains, as if heaven crashes, it rains.” Kayzakian’s are poems of real stakes and scale, of the minute and the hour and the lifetime. His subjects—art, family, masculinity, empire—remain as timely as ever, but it’s the uncanny juxtapositions of lyric and visual art that make ‘The Book of Redacted Paintings’ an unforgettable text,” said Kaveh Akbar, author of “Calling a Wolf a Wolf” and “Pilgrim Bell.”

“In his poignant and devastating debut collection, Arthur Kayzakian skillfully excavates personal memory and family history to reclaim a missing heirloom. Through poems ranging in documentary, to visual, to lyrical, Kayzakian confronts how the grief of war and displacement are compounded by the loss of stolen familial objects, beloved items that served as a reminder of the life before. Where the harms of war are intensified by new harms, these poems push against historical erasure to establish a new narrative. Kayzakian stirs with poetic prowess while achieving generational reclamation,” said Mai Der Vang, author of “Yellow Rain.”

“I love Arthur Kayzakian’s ‘The Book of Redacted Paintings’ for its lyricism and its honestly which comes at us not directly but by way of images and music and always speaks in tongues in a way that alerts and awakens. There is both hunger and wisdom in these poems, both silence inside the singing and the fresh music out of rooms that might have been silenced once. Not any more! The new, original, inimitable poet is in the room. Kayzakian deserves our warmest welcome,” said Ilya Kaminsky, author of “Deaf Republic” and “Dancing in Odessa.”

“Arthur Kazakyan’s ‘The Book of Redacted Paintings’ is a deft and daring first collection. It’s also one of the best examples I’ve seen of a narrative sustained from poem to poem without sacrificing momentum. Constantly surprising, this gallery of moments is exquisitely curated; you will want to linger here. Themes of love, heritage, wonder, and the life of the artist are embodied in strokes that always seem fresh, still drying. ‘Forgive me collector,’ he says, ‘I’m trying to get back to my world…’ Follow this exhibition, it’s on the move,” said Brendan Constantine, author of “Dementia, My Darling.”

Arthur Kayzakian

Arthur Kayzakian is the winner of the 2021 Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series award for his collection, “The Book of Redacted Paintings,” which was also selected as a finalist for the 2021 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. He is the recipient of the 2022 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is also the winner of the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition for, “My Burning City.” He serves as the Poetry Chair for the International Armenian Literary Alliance. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from several publications including Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art, Portland Review, Chicago Review, Nat. Brut, The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Witness Magazine, and Prairie Schooner.

To pre-order “The Book of Redacted Paintings,” please visit Black Lawrence’s pre-order page.

For more information, please contact Nina Smilow, [email protected], at Black Lawrence Press.