INSIGHT: Emergence
Synergy
Interview by Atiba T. Edwards with Hagop Belian
What did you learn about your art practice during your reduced social interactions these past few months? I learned that art can be whatever I want it to be. It can be my healer, my sanity, my salvation, my escape but most of all it is my teacher because of its ability to reflect back to me my own truth and honesty - showing me exactly where I am at. It helps me express more than words can about how I am feeling and what I believe in. It is also very humbling to experience creativity as an energy that comes through to collaborate with me in the expression of a feeling. Access to that infinite field is something that is granted and therefore something that needs to be respected.
How do you see the intersection of creating art and the benefit of people seeing your art in person? There is definitely a different type of intimacy that happens when experiencing art in person. A lot of the subtle nuances get lost in a photo or through the digital distributions of the artwork. Artworks are portals to different worlds and dimensions. Experiencing artwork in person, you experience and interact with the energy that emanates from the work. There are also lots of details such as depth, layers and marks that get lost in the digital realm. Again, there are moments that the artists has with the work that leaves a residue of energy, like an imprint of intention that can only be felt in the presence of the work.
Your works often are compositions of many other forms into one singular one. Can you talk a bit more about that process and source of inspirations that drive this style? For me life is about synergy, the sum that is greater than the sum of its part is a motto that ripples through so many aspects of who I am and what I do. Every strong organization or team is comprised of many individuals working together to form a dynamic and strong entity. Since my work is about humans meeting their spirit animal, there is an underlying theme of transformation and synthesis that fuses together different aspects of rebirth and evolution. This not only takes form visually but also mentally and metaphysically. 10 | www.fokus.org
