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The Daily Star (Lebanon)
May 25, 2011 Wednesday
There is more to see than just colors
by Chirine Lahoud
There are always moments when personal experience or memories
influence the artists' works.
BEIRUT: There are always moments when personal experience or memories
influence the artists' works.
The 17th-century English philosopher John Locke, the man most-closely
associated with British empiricism, stated that a person acquires
knowledge [and thus personal development] from experience, rather than
rationalism.
Armenian-Lebanese artist Mireille Goguikian has drawn upon her
personal knowledge to express her view of life in her exhibition
"Myrrhe, Myrtille et Vanille," ("Myrrh, Blueberry and Vanilla"), which
is nowadays on display at Hamazkayin Art Gallery.
Forty-six mixed media works (oils on canvasses and collage) comprise
"Myrrhe, Myrtille et Vanille," each of them revealing Goguikian's
extraordinary use of color as a means of sublimating past experience
into art.
The artist explained to The Daily Star how the title of her exhibition
was taken directly from her memories. When she was a child, she said,
she and her brother used to eat blueberries ("myrtille") from her
garden.
"Vanilla" - or more precisely the yellow color, which is
characteristic of vanilla - reminds Goguikian of the Syrian Desert,
where many Armenians were forced to march till death. The color
plunges her into the collective memory of the 1915-1916 Armenian
Genocide, the Deir al-Zur camps, and the massacre she heard and read
about when she was younger.
"I am a colorist," Goguikian said. "Looking at my paintings is like
looking into a kaleidoscope."
At first sight, when we look at Goguikian's artwork, we see a mass of
colors, mixed together, with no real figures or shapes represented.
In her painting "Aquavie" ("Aqua-life," 80x62cm) reds, oranges and
yellows mingle on the canvas in a blotch of color. As is the case when
looking at a kaleidoscope, however, when we look at it long enough, we
notice shapes. Motifs appear suddenly, as if an optical illusion,
ranging from fish to coral reef.
Spectators may well wonder why Goguikian renders the sea using warm
colors like red and orange rather than the usual blue. The artist
herself sheds no light on this matter. It may be, though, that the
alliance of reds and undersea life suggests that the ghoulish
experiences that haunt one's life tint the memories and perception of
the world without destroying them utterly.
For Goguikian, shades of red have a symbolic weight, relating her work
to everything that has happened in the recent history of the Middle
East - the wars, displacement of peoples and genocides - memories of
which are important to her. Her paintings, she said, have to be
"felt."
Any aromatherapy aficionado will tell you that the myrrh fruit is
traditionally used to heal wounds and minor burns. Goguikian's
paintings can thus be seen as bandages useful in healing the artist's
memory. Her paintings are her therapy.
"Myrrhe, Myrtille et Vanille" Mireille Goguikian's exhibition is on
display at Hamazkayin Art Gallery in Bourj Hammoud until May 30. For
more information please call 01-241-262.
May 25, 2011 Wednesday
There is more to see than just colors
by Chirine Lahoud
There are always moments when personal experience or memories
influence the artists' works.
BEIRUT: There are always moments when personal experience or memories
influence the artists' works.
The 17th-century English philosopher John Locke, the man most-closely
associated with British empiricism, stated that a person acquires
knowledge [and thus personal development] from experience, rather than
rationalism.
Armenian-Lebanese artist Mireille Goguikian has drawn upon her
personal knowledge to express her view of life in her exhibition
"Myrrhe, Myrtille et Vanille," ("Myrrh, Blueberry and Vanilla"), which
is nowadays on display at Hamazkayin Art Gallery.
Forty-six mixed media works (oils on canvasses and collage) comprise
"Myrrhe, Myrtille et Vanille," each of them revealing Goguikian's
extraordinary use of color as a means of sublimating past experience
into art.
The artist explained to The Daily Star how the title of her exhibition
was taken directly from her memories. When she was a child, she said,
she and her brother used to eat blueberries ("myrtille") from her
garden.
"Vanilla" - or more precisely the yellow color, which is
characteristic of vanilla - reminds Goguikian of the Syrian Desert,
where many Armenians were forced to march till death. The color
plunges her into the collective memory of the 1915-1916 Armenian
Genocide, the Deir al-Zur camps, and the massacre she heard and read
about when she was younger.
"I am a colorist," Goguikian said. "Looking at my paintings is like
looking into a kaleidoscope."
At first sight, when we look at Goguikian's artwork, we see a mass of
colors, mixed together, with no real figures or shapes represented.
In her painting "Aquavie" ("Aqua-life," 80x62cm) reds, oranges and
yellows mingle on the canvas in a blotch of color. As is the case when
looking at a kaleidoscope, however, when we look at it long enough, we
notice shapes. Motifs appear suddenly, as if an optical illusion,
ranging from fish to coral reef.
Spectators may well wonder why Goguikian renders the sea using warm
colors like red and orange rather than the usual blue. The artist
herself sheds no light on this matter. It may be, though, that the
alliance of reds and undersea life suggests that the ghoulish
experiences that haunt one's life tint the memories and perception of
the world without destroying them utterly.
For Goguikian, shades of red have a symbolic weight, relating her work
to everything that has happened in the recent history of the Middle
East - the wars, displacement of peoples and genocides - memories of
which are important to her. Her paintings, she said, have to be
"felt."
Any aromatherapy aficionado will tell you that the myrrh fruit is
traditionally used to heal wounds and minor burns. Goguikian's
paintings can thus be seen as bandages useful in healing the artist's
memory. Her paintings are her therapy.
"Myrrhe, Myrtille et Vanille" Mireille Goguikian's exhibition is on
display at Hamazkayin Art Gallery in Bourj Hammoud until May 30. For
more information please call 01-241-262.