Nairy Baghramian

Nairy Baghramian’s works suggest ‘a sculptural relation between a thing and meaning.’ (Marian Goodman, 2022) Described as ‘discursive’ (Marian Goodman, 2022), this suggests that her abstract objects have the ability to talk of something, maybe communicate what they are and what they are doing but at the same time shake off any assigned definition. 

 

‘Trusting both the reticence and revelatory in material and form’ (Marian Goodman, 2022), her works quietly go about their business of being wonderful curious things. There is a real sense of referencing something functional, an ability to do something, like they serve, or served a purpose. 

 

‘Her works reference architecture and the fragmented human body’ (Marian Goodman, 2022), and this is of direct interest to me in that I am trying to handle something similar, I love this notion that ‘as sculpture in a gallery they…command and redefine space as much as windows, walls or the view’ (Marian Goodman, 2022). I think that a works ability to become as integral to a space as a door or a window shows just how site responsive they are and that this is a true engagement of artwork and space. ‘Gingerly advancing from the periphery, from passages or corridors, toward the centre, her works characteristically inscribe themselves in their environment or mark a particular point in it rather than dominating the space.’ (Vienna Secession, 2022)

‘As though in a drawing in the space, the arrangement of the sculptures echoes the shape of the room and emphasizes its axes; at the same time, the composition strikes one as a circulatory system that would ordinarily be at work behind the scenes’ (Vienna Secession, 2022). This reference is a central to my work. This is exactly what I try to achieve within my own installations, rather than a drawing existing on paper made with a pen, I see it as drawing in space with three-dimensional objects and lines. I believe that installations that work in this way lend themselves to a very particular experience, like a habitable drawing.

Looking at her sculptures I get a real sense of characters, they are personified. The bodily aspects and postures that they take on – standing, leaning, crouching – makes them appear as though they have certain dispositions or intentions. The way in which they are supported with structures akin to legs, as they lean their mass into them, being held upright or pinning them in place. And despite their mass and solidness they speak of fluctuations and fluidity, malleability, and a lightness. ‘They invite the dichotomies of airiness and weight, aloof poise and dependence’ (Marian Goodman, 2022). 

 

‘Organic shapes that are densely packed or imbricated, that buttress, support, or lean on one another, subtly yet unmistakably evince their reliance on one another. Props and clamps resembling prostheses further underscore the objects’ correlation or interdependence; no effort is made to camouflage ostensible defects in the works: “My sculptures are supposed to help articulate the doubt concerning their viability.” (Vienna Secession, 2022) Baghramian’s honest handling of material language is something I am trying to hone in my practice. Her accomplishments in being able to use multiple elements in such varied materials and get them to contradict and complement one another is going to be a repeated source of influence to me as I attempt to navigate very similar territories and the concerns I have over tyring to make very different materials and elements come together. 

 

There is so much in Nairy Bagramian’s work that I feel so aligned to, it is difficult to point out limitations. I think they lie in the scale perhaps; in that I don’t think my own works and installations will be as big. This is partly due to simple logistical matters, but also in terms of how solid her works are in her use of metal, they are often large sheets or dense steel that take up large parts of her installations and I don’t use metal in that way. I feel that her use of metal aligns itself more to sculpture and my own relates more to the drawn line.