Zarouhie Abdalian: We can decide

Altman Siegel presents We can decide, a solo exhibition of new works by Zarouhie Abdalian. The exhibition centers around a sound installation, threnody for the unwilling martyrs, which sees Abdalian return to the use of bells as a basis for sound sculpture.

Throughout We can decide, a state of suspension pervades the space of the gallery and threnody for the unwilling martyrs is its emblem. Set just slightly in motion, five brass signaling bells sound out their indeterminate status, both and alternately signifying and hailing, marking and calling, meaning and doing. In recognition of the mass murder Abdalian asks us to lay at the feet of the U.S. government, it may be read as a memorial and an incitation.

Elsewhere in the gallery, two large sculptures impose themselves as nameless witnessing objects to the present conjuncture. Emptied of its cargo, a 2,500 lbs. bulk bag gapes. Nearby, the torso of an internal combustion engine stands as tribute to social labor and Promethean will. Suspended from the ceiling, a light sculpture counts out the indeterminate intervals between events, registered as flashes of brilliant energy.

A poem—the exhibition’s namesake—is printed as a takeaway. The text is derived from a 2019 piece titled Rhymes and Reckonings (for Sverdlovsk and Yekaterinburg) made with collaborator Joseph Rosenzweig. The body of the text records in irregular couplets the social character of commodity production—that is, the real world from which the “readymade” objects of the exhibition are plucked. Abdalian’s interest is not so much in what any given object represents but what of its history can be clarified at the utopian (no place) site of the gallery. History is decided, the poem contends. It can be read as a memorial and an incitation.

altmansiegel.com