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To
locate Frederique Nalbandian's work in recent art historical context
it helps to revisit Lucy R. Lippard's seminal essay from 1968 entitled
"Dematerialization of Art." The observations Lippard makes about
her contemporaries (LeWitt, Andre, Darbovan, Kawara, Nauman, Hess
etc.) who were revolutionizing artistic practice at the time find
their offshoots in Nalbandian's oeuvre. This lineage is only partially
accurate though, especially since many of those artists have now
been absorbed by mainstream institutions - the very system that
they once rejected or exiled themselves from. A visit to the idyllic
Dia Beacon in upstate New York is a testimony to the inevitable
de-revolutionization of art as a lived experiment. What sets Nalbandian
apart from her predecessors and positions her as a current revolutionary
in art is her ability to internalize their accumulative knowledge
- sum of the parts - which she then reconfigures and translates
into a vision of her own. Take for instance the element of temporality
or duration proposed by the older conceptualists - "ideas+actions"
- which often manifested in serialized art objects, amplifying or
repeating a detail of a phenomenon. Nalbandian, on the other hand,
questions such purist-rational approaches which distance us by painstakingly
crafting environments that favor the experiential, including the
emotional. The asymmetry, messiness and fluidity of these contact
zones she creates correspond to the disorder that structures contemporary
life. Similarly, her use of certain reinvented materials, like dripping
soap or thread-dipped in plaster, expand the vocabulary of the previous
generation's exploitation of unusual materials to derive at new
forms. Hers, however, are substantiated with potential narratives,
or go beyond art for art sake. These strategies in turn rely on
our intuition, not just intellect, to decipher them. In short, Nalbandian's
inclusive approach is not built upon an urge to erase, displace,
or uproot the old. "Newness" for her is in giving language to multiple
forms of rupture. The artist's minimal application of colors, like
gold and red, energize or transform her otherwise subdued environs
into a sort of 'Theatre of the Ruptured'. Here, awkward materials,
shapes, sounds and smells become the actors of a universal performance
that is also linked to an autobiographical marking. Mediated through
her multi media and multi layered, yet intimate, productions is
the irrevocable loss of language due to the trauma of the genocide
experienced by the artist's Armenian grandparents - whereby expression
is also given to the effects of the suspension of mourning on a
culture subjected to continued denial. Others have already observed
how revealing the loss of a model constitutes the core meaning of
Nalbandian's aesthetic meditations. While that is true, it's important
to remember that she also offers us an anti-model as a viable means
to new beginnings.
Neery
Melkonian
2008 Independent
Critic/Curator
New York City .
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