Lavash as an art and in the art- from Minas Avetisyan to Kusama-influenced installation
By Ani Margaryan
It’s noteworthy that lavash and its making process rarely come into sight as a focus for
contemporary art installations. We are fortunate to witness its employment as a basic material for
groundbreaking installation that occupies a whole room at 117 North Artsakh Avenue in Glendale,
California. Being a substantial part of “My Relic”, a public artwork created by the female artist
group “She Loves Collective”, every single item in the room, walls, sofa, laptop, table with
candlesticks, literally every object is made from lavash.
In terms of repetitive motif coverage of the entire space, it evokes certain references to Yayoi
Kusama’s compulsive use of polka dots spanning all over closed spaces and chambers.
Nonetheless, the Japanese artist in that way underlined her fears, hallucinations, dark side of her
unconscious world within her surreal rooms of plastic, unnatural media, but the “Lavash room” of
the Armenian artists in its turn made from the real flatbread, embodies the scope of Armenianity,
eternity of collective memory, being transformed from a personal artistic expression into general
image of Armenian tradition, cultural heritage, obsession with lavash Armenians do share, and,
eventually, the melancholy induced from the wounds of the Genocide, still wet, still open for
generations.
