Narine

Despite its raw, even aggressive use of material, texture, and color the painting of Narine Isajanyan displays restrained, circumspect refinement. For all her emphasis on gesture, surface, and bold contrast, Isajanyan is a minimalist, confining her forms and her formats to simple iterations, compositions that are not so much seen as felt by the eye. In this regard Isajanyan absorbs the lessons of the Light & Space movement – California’s version of minimalism – and its succeeding phenomenon in Los Angeles, material abstraction. Material abstraction stresses the optically sensual by leaving materials in their raw state or even subjecting them to natural processes of erosion and chemical transformation. Isajanyan reinterprets these conditions into the muted elegance and traditional painterliness of the shared Bunker aesthetic.

Peter Frank

narine iSajanyan

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tiMe tiCkS on My CanvaS

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NARINE ISAJANYAN came to California in 1998 searching for a metaphysical miraclethat the Pacific Ocean waves would bring her. “I wanted to work with the ocean to transform myself and my thoughts. When I moved here from faraway Armenia I was homesick at first, but I had wanted to be a person who has neither country nor nationality, just to be me. That became possible in the ocean where I felt my body disappear and become detached from Earth. Entering and exiting water I had no boundaries.” Ocean waves also reconnected Narine with white, the color she loved to use in Armenia. “After my arrival to America I had a challenging period when everything was new and sometimes incomprehensible. It was a discovery of freedom where everything ended and began at the same time. To symbolize it I covered everything I had at hand – pieces of wood, metal, canvas – with white color. I was also covering my beloved former life with white until I had settled into my new motherland. I was helped by the ocean, a valley of water where it was so easy and pleasant to be. I got the miracle I wanted!“

At this period Narine also came to the realization that it really doesn't matter what art materials or tools she uses. “I wanted to understand what to do with my body and my life. The most important thing was my conscious self and what

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I wanted to express. I also realized I could create with both physical and non physical materials. This had been difficult to explain to my colleagues until I met Sev, Kiki, and Lark. They listened and understood, I knew I was home and could leave my white period behind.” After that Narine went through a period when she created artworks with nails. "Nails were symbols of good times in my life, like the glances my beloved and I exchanged back in Armenia.” Asked whether idea or execution was more important in her art making process, Narine answers: “Philosophy always was first, a plot already was in my head, I knew what I would talk about. The conception of an idea usually took a long time for me but it went fast after that, during the creative process. Perhaps that is why the final result was sometimes different than what I thought would happen." Then came a period when the main players in Narine's art were earth materials like sand, soil, metal powder, and time. “When I work with any material, I always include time and the infinity where we all came from and where we all go. When sand in my artworks crumbles it is a change we must adapt to. COVID-19 also causes unexpected change. Nature responds to the impact of human deeds and we all are responsible for this. We artists have to consciously address the situation and prepare for tomorrow.”

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Before COVID-19 arrived Narine presented art performances in public spaces in many different countries. By using sand, soil, and natural earth pigments on her canvases in addition to conventional paints she attracted attention to environmental issues. “If we live on Earth we'd better treat our planet carefully and protect nature.”

Narine remembers the times when she created big artworks outdoors surrounded by building construction in progress. Leaves would fall on her canvas, rain would come down, sometimes people stepped on them. These events made her happy "because it made me feel the time that ticked on my canvases more intensely. These traces of time created unbelievably beautiful effects. It reminds me that all that happens now is a continuation of what we did earlier; and before we notice, it is already tomorrow. I speak through my materials, my art is my word, this is about us and our time.” Narine remembers vividly how meeting the Bunker Art Group members influenced her life. "Communicating with Bunker artists was very important to me! When I talked with Kiki I was in the space of my soul, somewhere where I could find answers to all my questions and where I was always right. Kiki used to tell me, 'If you think so, it should be so.' Kiki also liked my wildness.” “With Sev I talked about earthly things. He was on the other side of reality for me. He had different thoughts about what I could do, and about the possibility of independence from other people's opinions. With Kiki I flew into space. Sev helped me to return to Earth. Sometimes, when it was difficult for me to live in peace with myself, my friendships with Kiki and Sev gave me the strength to be in harmony with the world.” “It is still very important for me to be and work together with other Bunker members, and to show the whole world what we have said in art. I am very glad that our Maecenas Sergei Javadian continues to work with the Bunker Group and is publishing this wonderful catalog showing his Bunker Group collection from Armenia plus new Bunker creations made here in Los Angeles. "This catalog will prove that our group is still alive in California and that we are still friends, active and creative.”

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Interview by Larisa Pilinsky