Parting Kisses
In this work, Aivazian weaves varying gestures of violence in sporting and political events, to present a reading of history as a spectator sport: a televised match with the requisite freeze-frames, instant replays, and reverse angles. Time feels like forever. The decades separating the release of Air Jordan sneakers, the frantic instant where two shoes become projectiles aimed at an occupier: flying kisses from a people to a hound.
The work contemplates the notion of an era and a dynasty, in historical narratives. A set of hand crafted bronze trophies of petrified moments and impossible suspensions attempt contradictory moves– monumentalization, reduction, and, even, erasure.
On the wall is an excerpt from an interview with Muntadhar al-Zaidi engraved onto a mirror in Arabic*; a marble slab replicating the inscription from the Michael Jordan statue in front of the United Center in Chicago; a diminutive screen showing a video uploaded onto YouTube by an American soldier in Baghdad. The elements frame the impermanence of many presents, and unsustainable presences.
* They know / that were the sun to rise / they would melt / and so, in order to extend their solid state / they opted to extend / their presence in the shade
Sfeir-Semler gallery, Hamburg, DE
Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, PL
