CALLIGRAFFITI AT ARMENIAN CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY EXPERIMENTAL ART

Tert.am
11:10 ~U 25.11.09

A new group exhibit has opened in Yerevan’s Armenian Center for
Contemporary Experimental Art (ACCEA, or NPAK in Armenian). The
exhibit, called "Calligraffiti" attempts to merge calligraphy, the
art of writing, with graffiti, the better-known contemporary art of
lettering on walls and property.

"What is the role of handwriting in the computer age? The so-called
letter as image, what does it tell us, when we’re not linguists,
we’re not reading it in a foreign language and we don’t recognize the
alphabet?… what remains in this case is only the form of the letter
and the emotion conveyed through the image…" writes the exhibit’s
curator, Arpa Hacobian.

In Calligraffiti, one can view works by Angela Karapetyan, Alexandra
Avakian, Garsu, Ali Ansari, Stepan Yesayan (Smee), Hayk Hakobian
and others, displaying calligraffiti from various countries. Also on
display are photos, providing further examples of calligraffiti.

Along with the decorative type of contemporary Armenian, Persian,
Japanese, Latin, and Greek, it’s possible to see contemporary type-art
‘solutions’: how a letter changes form, how it takes on a new image
and strength, sometimes becoming illegible and finally, appearing in
the city sphere, as a part of urban art.

The exhibit runs from November 24, 2009, to March 15, 2010.