images | text

Zarouhie Abdalian
Born in 1982 in New Orleans, USA / Lives in Oakland, USA

Jens Hoffmann (JH): You work in a very site-specific manner. I wonder how you will create a new piece for Istanbul—a place you never will have visited before going there for the installation? Part of your family is Armenian American, however, so perhaps you do perceive that you have a relationship with this place already?

Zarouhie Abdalian (ZA): I have had a relationship for my entire life with the place in which this installation will exist. It is a relationship that is informed by an ever-urgent past, by a present that exists only through my reading of literature and news media, and by a physical distance. I first experienced this sort of relationship as a limitation to proposing a site-specific piece, but ultimately my particular relationship to the place became the starting point for the project. Would I actually make a more site-influenced piece if I were in Istanbul for a month or two? Viewing a place from a distance versus being at, or of, a place—I think both vantage points are valid as locations from which to speak.

JH: You have spoken to me in the past about landscape as material. Can you elaborate on that thought a little?

ZA: When I come to a site, I think of landscape, which refers to the history of the representation of sites. In my work, I respond to sites through alterations and translations. Sometimes, the way the site has been previously represented partly determines the form of the work itself, and in these works, I explore landscape as an index of these representations.

JH: How do you plan to approach the piece you will be making for Istanbul?

ZA: I’ll spend time sitting, walking, and sketching to build a relationship with the physical site. I have a specific idea of what type of experience I want to create for the viewer. But I am still open at this point, especially to finding materials that I might work with. This, to me, is one of the more interesting (and occasionally frustrating) things about working with a new site: It often leads to working with a new material or taking a novel approach to a familiar material. I come from a printmaking and painting background, and I think this influences me. I am very much engaged with process, and interested in the meaning generated through the precise use of materials.

JH: Could you talk about the political dimensions of your work?

ZA: Art strikes me as a weak tool for effecting political change. On the other hand, I often want my work to initiate a kind of epistemological rift. A successful work might act a bit like a speed bump: It may not change your path, but it registers, and for a moment, you move differently. Perhaps this strikes you as a pathetic image, but I believe there is value in subtle disruptions initiated by artworks. They have the ability to quietly suggest a changed or altered perspective.