Serj Tankian’s summary work have complicated layers of a handful of colours that evoke a deep emotional longing that may be exhausting to explain. However his works come alive in surprising methods when accompanied by music he composed particularly for them.
“I see music and visual art as extensions of the same soul. When I paint, I’m composing. When I compose, I’m painting,” Tankian mentioned in an announcement shared with Hyperallergic. “Each informs the other in ways words cannot express.”
“The whole idea of musically composed paintings is something I’ve been interested in for a long time,” Tankian continued. “As an artist, I’ve always wanted to go to an exhibition, put on headphones, and listen to a piece of music, just like films.”
Guests to the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown, Massachusetts, can expertise the Grammy Award-winning System of a Down vocalist’s imaginative and prescient in a brand new exhibition, The Artwork of Disruption: The Artwork and Influence of Serj Tankian, that opened this month and can stay on view by way of February. The gallery includes a sequence of Tankian’s unique summary work and their accompanying musical clips, in addition to video installations, poems, and artifacts.
Serj Tankian of System Of A Down photographed by Travis Shinn (© Travis Shinn)
Viewers also can obtain the Arloopa app — which Tankanian developed with an Armenian designer — level their telephone at a portray, and take heed to orchestral preparations of keyboards, guitars, and violins that Tankian composed to accompany every bit. The picks vary from one to 24 minutes, however most are the size of a mean pop music.
“Museums are relatively silent when you’re viewing work outside of an event, but when you utilize these compositions that he created, it’s not silent,” Jason Sohigian, the museum’s govt director, informed Hyperallergic. “It’s an experience you’re hearing and seeing at the same time.”
Tankian had the thought of coupling musical compositions with work for a number of years. He thought of writing music for different artists’ work, however it didn’t give him as a lot pleasure as pairing his music along with his personal work.
“One day, I just thought to myself, ‘I have this composition and I really want to paint.’ How do I make this work?” Tankian mentioned. “Luckily I liked my first painting. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have continued.”
Set up view of The Artwork of Disruption: The Artwork and Influence of Serj Tankian on the Armenian Museum of America
The museum has lengthy showcased the work of up to date artists who reinterpret the story of the Armenian diaspora and the ramifications of the nation’s century-old genocide that reverberate in the present day.
The Glendale-born rock star first grew to become acquainted with the museum after seeing its show of Jack Kevorkian’s artworks 4 years in the past, when he was engaged on a undertaking in Cambridge.
Quickly, he began speaking with Sohigian about his personal work and his current memoir, Down with the System (2024).
“Serj had started painting, and he also came out with his memoir, where he put out a lot of stuff about his life story and his involvement with music,” Sohigian mentioned. “He started a gallery on his own in Los Angeles that exhibited his work, and he has also shown in New Zealand.”
Serj Tankian, “The Florist” (2023)
Ryann Casey, a New Jersey-based artist who curated the exhibition, mentioned Tankian emphasised the interconnectedness of his poetry, music, and visible artwork, and the meditative facet of creating every of them.
“I don’t often get a chance to curate musicians,” she mentioned. “Armenian history is very important to me, and seeing someone express that history and himself through these three different modes was an interesting challenge.”
Tankian’s works might not be overtly political, however they carry quiet echoes of genocide recognition, environmental justice, and cultural identification, with titles similar to“Music Is a Doorway to the Truth,” “Ethnic Cause,” and “Violent Violins.” His poetry explores connections to his activism with strains about craving for peace.
“I don’t think any of us have shied away from that activism,” Casey mentioned. “Hopefully, people look at those through different lenses.”
Serj Tankian, “Thoughts” (2022)
