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Demi Sedrakyan:
Holding Dear

Demi Sedrakyan’s Where One Place Ends and Another Begins explores what humans hold dear and the physical manifestations we choose to embody our memories. As we move through the world and leave what is familiar behind, the objects we take with us become a sort of sacred archive of what once was. Through exploring this innately human practice, Sedrakyan has developed her own kind of sacred iconography.

In Where One Place Ends and Another Begins, Sedrakyan’s visual lexicon expands from the works to the exhibition installation, physically occupying not only the gallery walls but the airspace and floor of Art City’s MIAR Gallery.

Here, NEW Gallery’s Alexandra Bishop joins Sedrakyan in conversation about their creative practice, the importance of objecthood, and their hopes for their MIAR exhibition.

DS: Yes, I think a lot about migration and the movement from one place to another. I think about my own immigrant story and my family's movement, which always leads to thinking about the icons that my family have brought with them: the books, tapestries, fibers. All of these tactile things contain so much history that they have become sacred.

That transitions into the work I'm making. Everything is incredibly cared for. The materials I use, the way mediums are chosen, and the process of creating is all incredibly careful and caring.

NG: Which translates into the way the show will be installed—occupying not only the gallery walls, but also the floor and airspace. There is one piece in particular that looks like a tablescape and serves almost as a shrine. Would you say the making of everyday objects into shrines is another way you think about this work?

DS: 100%. Especially with the ceramics in the show. We’ll exhibit what began as functional cups and plates in new, nonfunctional ways. There's going to be a series of ceramic cups stacked as a single sculptural display, leaning almost a little precariously. By elevating these cups on a plinth, we're raising them up and adding a bit of sacredness to them.


NG: It’s fascinating to revisit a piece and install it in a new way that provides a different context for the work. These once functional cups will be perceived differently when displayed as an untouched sculpture on a pedestal.

DS: Exactly! It's the same thing with the ceramic plates that will be reimagined and installed as wall hangings for the show. Plus, there are a handful of paintings in the show on stretched muslin, mixing watercolor and oil paint. I'm super excited about those because they have this breathiness to them.

A big theme between all of the pieces is relationship and interaction of material, shape, and color.

NG: How did you come to the show’s title and how does it relate to what folks will see?

DS: Where One Place Ends and Another Begins relates to thematic content of the show. When people move, what is their next step? When birds that have flown the same pathways for centuries can no longer fly those paths, what is their next move? The title is kind of sad, but I think it's also hopeful and even playful.

The title is also a meditation on the physicality of the works in the show, with pieces where it might be unclear where it ends or begins. The collages contain pieces of old works that I cut up and repurposed, layering materials, transitioning between forms, and abstracting my own creations.

I want people to experience it and be like, “Where does what end or begin? What are we talking about? What's the point of all this?”

NEW GALLERY: How would you describe your practice? How has it evolved over the years?

DEMI SEDRAKYAN: I've been making art my whole life. For a long time, I was a figurative painter, but there was a gradual shift into abstraction. It was a very natural, intuitive transition. Almost like it called to me.

My work explores the intersections of where different mediums can meet. Thinking about how that can keep evolving and can be played with is a big part of my practice.

NG: Your practice’s attention to the materials you use reminds me of the thematic content in Where One Place Ends and Another Begins, which explores how humans use objects as tokens of memories and places that have been left behind.

"Where One Place Ends and Another Begins relates to thematic content of the show. When people move, what is their next step? When birds that have flown the same pathways for centuries can no longer fly those paths, what is their next move?"

NG: To your point of “What's the point of this all?” I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a maker in a world that is increasingly focused on consumption. Given your careful consideration of material and sacredness, I have to know: Do you believe there is even room for an object to be sacred in our culture? Is the handmade object still important?

DS: I'm a very generative person. I make a lot of work, so I am very concerned with what I’m making and where it will go. I find that I sometimes ask myself “What is the point of making this?” This is especially true with the ceramics I make, given that once they’re fired they will literally outlive me.

But, what I return to when I find myself in the doom and gloom of worrying that we’re all making too much is the reality that things made 1,000, 500, or 100 years ago are still regarded as special. Forgotten materials and objects continue to be re-found and have a specialness to them.

And to that point of our current disposable culture, one of the things I really hope for the show is that people leave having actively seen it. Having actively experienced it. Our attention is another thing that is in crisis right now. It really is.

The first thought someone has when they see my work isn’t necessarily that it’s political, but I've always believed that everything you make is political.

NG: Absolutely. It is an incredibly intentional choice to make something in a world where automation rules. To make is a political act.

Demi Sedrakyan is an SAIC Alumna, working between Chicago and Los Angeles. She was a Getty Marrow Intern, and has worked at the Art Institute of Chicago in the Prints and Drawings department. She is a recipient of NCECA’s Multicultural as well as Undergraduate Fellowships. Currently, she is an art educator at Modest Fly Art Gallery and Studio. For sales inquiries, contact the artist directly.

Images courtesy of the artist.

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