Images and poetry converge in “Remain in Light,” a portrait of Armenian id in movement

This assortment, edited by Gassia Armenian and printed by the Fowler Museum at UCLA, endeavors to visualise the modern Armenian expertise within the homeland and in Los Angeles, residence to the most important Armenian inhabitants within the diaspora.

The first wave of immigrants got here to California within the late 1800s; the second was spurred by the Armenian genocide of 1915. Further Armenian migrants, from Soviet Armenia, the Middle East, Iran and different nations, proceed to seek out solace, satisfaction and connection within the traditions, customs, faith, language and recollections they introduced with them.

Sossi Madzounian, Ara Mgrdichian and Ara Oshagan, three diaspora-born Armenian artists residing in Los Angeles, share their views on the lifetime of their folks within the previous world and the brand new, illuminating the evolving social material of Armenian life — survival within the homeland, the immigrant expertise in diaspora and the rebirth of Armenian Americans on new soil. This ebook pairs their images with poems by LA-based poets Tina Demirdjian, Arminé Iknadossian, Arthur Kayzakian, Shahé Mankerian and Raffi Joe Wartanian. The quantity is a tribute to all these artists, and to Armenians throughout the globe.

Gassia Armenian is a curator and analysis affiliate on the Fowler Museum at UCLA, the place she conducts collections and database analysis to facilitate curatorial and scholarly efforts and manages varied features of planning and organizing exhibitions. She curated Fowler exhibitions: Janyak: Armenian Art of Knots and Loops and Remain In Light: Visions of Homeland and Diaspora. In 2023, each acquired recognition from the Armenian Academy of Sciences, Diaspora Division and the Sardarapat Museum of Ethnography within the Republic of Armenia. The exhibition Joli! Fancy Masquerade from Sierra Leone (2016–2017), curated by Armenian, was the primary to function an interactive CT scan on an iPad within the gallery. Currently, she is the in-house curator of Mountain Spirits, which highlights the historical past, customs and beliefs of the Ifugao folks of the North Luzon Peninsula of the Philippines. Additionally, she is growing an exhibition linking international artists to native communities. Armenian liaises with home and worldwide artists and personal lenders and has helped to mount many Fowler exhibitions, together with: Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths (2018); From X to Why: A Museum Takes Shape (2013–14), World Arts/Local Lives: The Collections of the Fowler Museum at UCLA (2014); Secrets d’Ivoire: L’artwork des Lega d’Afrique central (Fowler touring exhibition on the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, 2013); Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley (2012); Architecture of the Veil: An Installation by Samta Benyahia (2007); A Saint within the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal (2003). Prior to the Fowler, Armenian was a consultant-project coordinator on the U.S. Agency for International Development for Junior Achievement of Armenia, the place she developed and carried out civics-education coaching applications and educating methodologies for principals and lecturers from the Republic of Armenia within the United States and Armenia. In addition, Armenian has taught world cultures and historical past on the Ferrahian Armenian School, Encino, Calif.

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