MOUNTAIN GIRL

Maral Matig is a second-generation Armenian and Canadian-born artist, currently studying Design at Concordia University. Matig has used her art practice as a means of healing, and it has simultaneously given the artist an opportunity to connect with her Armenian heritage on a deeper and more significant level.

Matig has a desire to centre themes of cultural awareness, and bodily freedom and expression, in her works. “The past two years have been a rerouting of self for me. I struggle with anxiety and my culture has helped with my healing, and has given me a sense of purpose,” says Matig.

Mountain Girl, a title inspired by an Armenian folk song, is a mixed media work that began as a gouache painting, and was later scanned on to Photoshop where Matig inverted the work and added other digital elements. This mix of material and digital elements results in a work that emits a special kind of illumination, highlighting the artist’s unique process. Matig feels that digital art is often relegated to a category of lesser art, but she believes that using digital processes allows her to extend her painterly vision beyond the physical limits of canvas.

Another integral aspect in Matig’s works is the artist’s relationship to landscape: “I developed an attachment to the Armenian landscape by looking at pictures of it. I developed a strong bond with the land just through digital imagery.” When Matig finally got an opportunity to visit this landscape, she experienced a visceral attachment to it and felt an urgency to represent her experience in her art. Seeing the undulations of her own shadow upon the Armenian landscape, Matig explained that “Indigenous Armenian bodies are rooted in the land and they come out of it when the sun sets. For me, a diasporic person, art is a way for me to preserve the [home]land.”

There is an emphasis on colour and line in Mountain Girl, and different figures emerge in this mix. They are ethereal figures, but they are not necessarily roving or untethered. Matig’s intention is to emphasize the connection between body and land, and the relationships of these two entities to generational trauma and healing. Mountain Girl is a product of discovery - a moment in which the artist was able to sink into the freedom of recognizing new or hidden parts of oneself.