Photo by Ironside Photography / Stephen Ironside.
April 24th marks the commemoration of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, a day to honor the memories of 1 million people killed in the early 1920s by the Ottoman government in Turkey. No sitting U.S. president has marked the occasion for fear of alienating the Turkish government, and sharing the stories of those whose lives were taken—or even calling this act of attempted ethnic cleansing a genocide at all—remains controversial for some.
Artist Aimée Papazian pays tribute to her lost and displaced ancestors with “Voyage of Lost Keys,” a permanent installation at Fayetteville Public Library, in Fayetteville, AR. A murmuration of 2,000 porcelain keys, among which is a replica of a key that was found in the ashes of her grandfather’s pillaged home in Turkey, the piece unlocks the history of Papazian’s family and of her people. It also speaks to refugees everywhere, including in our own time. “‘Voyage of Lost Keys’ is a way to imagine a mass migration—a way to think about people who have lost their homes and their place in the world as still being somehow connected to each other,” Papazian says.
Hrag Vartanian, editor of Hyperallergic, calls the work “moving”; The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette calls it “magical.”
www.aimeepapazian.com
