The solo exhibition Other Pains includes three bodies of work where captivating landscapes and urban scenes reflect sites of previous pain or melancholy from both the artist’s own personal history and that of others.
Through extensive research Sarkissian conveys stories of conflict, displacement, loss and hope.
A major new commission for Other Pains, Sea of Trees, is an installation of photography captured in Aokigahara forest, on the northwestern flank of Mount Fuji in Japan.
Sarkissian has captured the beauty and serenity of the forest in a series of large format photographs. The installation allows visitors to walk around each work, surrounded by the sounds of the trees, emulating a sense of walking through the forest.
Included in the exhibition is the video installation Sweet & Sour. Sarkissian travelled to his ancestral village to capture a place that was unknown and yet familiar to him. He subsequently travelled to Damascus, where he shared the footage with his father, who had also never visited his birthplace. The filmed encounter focuses on the emotional landscape of his father’s face as he watches the footage Sarkissian has captured. A third screen shows Sarkissian himself overlooking his ancestral land.
The third part of the exhibition in 47 archival inkjet prints is called Last Scene – a series of photographs of locations in The Netherlands that were chosen by terminally ill patients to visit as their last wish. The scenes were captured on the same date and time the actual visit took place in a previous year.
Sarkissian is considered one of the leading conceptual photographers of his generation. He trained at his father’s photographic studio in Damascus, Syria, which to this day informs his perspective and practice.
Hrair Sarkissian, Other Pains, runs at Wolverhampton Art Gallery until Sunday 22 June.
Visit wolverhamptonart.org.uk/whats-on/hrair-sarkissian-other-pains for more information.
