Round Table | for trouble in paradise exhibition

Round Table by Nvard Yerkanian, 2014 photographic laser prints on porcelain plates, mixed media Having studied architecture, photography and currently practicing design, Nvard Yerkanian’s practice investigates how objects can condition as well as disturb our everyday routines. Taking functional forms, her artworks turn seemingly banal set-ups upon themselves. In the 2014 installation The round table, the plates with images of the artist’s exposed body parts and the different cutlery, confuse the nature of the situation. Is the table set for an intimate, domestic, commercial or official occasion? Are these plates decorative or for eating? By blurring these contextual borders, Yerkanian points to the connections within them and reveals the temporal, political and cultural conditions of a simple ritual like eating. “Putting the image on such a fragile material as porcelain, I want to play with the notions of disempowerment and vulnerability. On the other hand, the ‘dinner’ table typifies the necessity and the power of female role in society.” Contradictions like this swirl into a constant zone of disquieting ambiguity. The pieces will never fit, unless, as prompted and dictated by the artist, the viewer lets go of the need to create order and gives in to the poetic possibility that lies within the chaos. Vigen Galstyan