Presentation of Queered: What’s to be done with XCentric Art The Celebration Women’s History Month at Northeastern University, March 27, 2012
Being asked to present Queered left me in a kind of conundrum. How do I best represent the group, whose work should I show from the book and do I have the right to act as a kind of spokesperson for the collective?
I decided to do a portion of the presentation as a performance in response to Angela Harutunyan’s performative essay Live from Angela: Apart We Are Together, from the Coming to You Not to be With You exhibition of the collective in 2008. I thought this would be a way of not just presenting the book, but responding to a part of the book live and pointing to the continuation of QY projects.
Live from the Flesh is performed through a live video feed, which is projected to the audience while my physical body is performing from a nearby room. I start the performance in near blackness calling out words which hold a negative connotation (in relation to colonialism, notions of progressiveness and loaded dichotomies) mixed with words of multiplicity, ambiguity and queerness. While calling out the words my televisual presence begins to surface as I wipe my flesh. There is a gap between my image and the audio, the latter reaching the audience beforehand.
Performing through a live feed is a way of contextualizing the virtuality of the group as well as responding to Harutunyan’s essay. In Amelia Jones’ essay Cinematic Self-Imaging, Jones uses Merleau Ponty’s theory on subjectivization and embodiment in which Ponty insists that we relate to the world as both embodied subject and embodied object that is both the seer and the seen. Jones argues that the screen can be thought of not as a border separating self from other, but as a place for exchange where self and other realize their reciprocal and simultaneous relationships that are mutating entities. This breaks down the oppositional model of subjectivity between self and other. My presence becomes embodied through the revealing of my face and body within the projection.
Please check out the exhibit Queer Me 2011: NYC. The exhibit will be held at The Center (LGBT Community Center, NYC) from February 11 – March 31. The show will feature the work of 31 artists in various media making queer (and uncensored) artworks. The juried exhibition was created in response to the censorship of artist David Wojnarowicz’ controversial video A Fire in My Belly from the Smithsonian Institute in 2010.
My short experimental video Delicious Fruit is one of five video pieces accepted into the show. Browse the exhibition catalog to see the rest.
Բոստոնում բնակվող Բոյաջեանն աշխատում է լուսանկարչության, վիդեոարվեստի և պերֆորմանսի շրջանակներում։ Կրթություն է ստացել Բոստոնի գեղարվեստի թանգարանի դպրոցում (2009) և Մասաչուսեթսի համալսարանում (2003)։ Բոյաջեանի նախագծերն առընչվում են հետ-գաղութային ինքնության, գենդերային բինարների, մշակութային ջնջման, տարօրինակման, գիտելիքի վերահսկման որպես իշխանության ձև, և իշխանության դինամիկայի խնդիրների հետ։ Ցուցադրվել է Մասաչուսեթսում, Փենսիլվանիայում, Մերիլենդում, Նյու Մեքսիկոյում, Նյու Յորքում, Վաշինգտոնում, Տոսկանիայում, Հելսինկիում և Երևանում։ Դասավանդում է լուսանկարչություն, ինչպես նաև աշխատում որպես թխվածքեղենի խոհարար։
Delicious Fruit (2010) Կարճ փորձարարական վիդեո, որն օգտագործում է Փարաջանովի «Նռան գույնը» (1969) արքետիպային ֆիլմից վերակոնտեքստավորված կադրեր։
Melissa Boyajian Delicious Fruit (2010) A short experimental video utilizing recontextualized footage of Sergei Parajanov’s archetypal film The Color of Pomegranates (1969).
My first article has been launched. The topic I am discussing is artists using history and archives in their work and I discuss their work in terms of Jacques Derrida’s theory of the archive. Please read it and make comments. Also check out the articles from other writers. Click the link below. http://ncphoffthewall.blogspot.com/2010/07/you-give-me-fever.html
This is my first official post and I would like to thank everyone for inviting me! I will be in Hyastan exactly one month from yesterday. I am a visual artist using photography, video, installation and performance art working with themes of gender identity, the accuracy of historical representations, myth-making, bodily limitation, power dynamics, queerness, oppression and diasporan identity.
Here are a couple of my video pieces from the past several years–
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