Lala, poetic tapestries
I knit poetry because I intend to shape a space that protects from the coldness of conventional talk. - Lala Keuylian -
WWW.LALATAPESTRIES.COM
Contents
Curriculum Vitae Background Vision
CV
About Armenian Culture and Me I was born in Montevideo on February 13, 1989 but I grew up in Caramelo, a very small city in Uruguay. Growing up, I had no contact with Armenian culture apart from my grandfather, but when I moved to Montevideo to study chemistry, I started to meet more and more Armenians.
Soon after, in 2014, I learned of the connection my own family had to preserving Armenian culture in the Diaspora. I learned that my father’s aunt, Arpine Keuylian, and her husband, Misak Kouyoumdjian, were founders of the Armenian Nubarian College in Uruguay. They were
In Montevideo, I met the director of the Nersesian Armenian College, Zaruhi Kouyoumdjian and she became like a grandmother to me. It was in this school that I first started experimenting with arts and education, organizing activities with classes of children, and developed a passion for it.
benefactors of AGBU and dedicated much of their lives to connecting with their ancestral culture. Because of their legacy I understood the importance of this connection and did not want to feel that it was being lost. In 2015, I decided to go to Armenia through Birthright Armenia and work in childhood education through the arts. I am very grateful for that experience: I was able to learn the basics of the Armenian language, meet Armenians from all over the world, and feel like I revitalized that connection. I met very dear friends in Armenia and, to this day, I am still in contact with some of my students, and the families and volunteers I lived and worked alongside.
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Education and Works 2007 - 2011
Chemistry in the University of the Republic Faculty of Chemistry.
2012 - 2018
Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences
While I was in Armenia, the mother of one of my
Degree in Educational Sciences (in the last
students taught me how to knit tapestries. Initially, I
year) University of the Republic
thought that my interest in the craft would fade once I returned to Uruguay but it only developed with new
2014 - 2015
Plastic arts workshops with visual artists Virigina Patrone and Álvaro Pemper
inspirations. After my first exhibition of tapestries, “Vive”, I again thought the knitting would stop. But today, I realize the
2012 - 2015
Publishing products for the expression of
impression that Armenian culture has had on me, and
children. Collection "Libreta Sabia" and "Con
how it has gifted me a modality of expression. With a
Arte Cuento"- Participation in the III
thread through the past and present to the future, this
International Congress "Art, Illustration and
practice has given me a language through which I can
Visual Culture in Infant and Primary
maintain my connection to Armenian culture.
Education: Image technologies, educational experience spaces and visual events" as speaker: "Some questions about the word-image relationships in the children's book. SEE LINK
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2015 (August to January) in Armenia: Participation in the Birthright Armenia Volunteer Program with the "Artist's Book"
Lala Tapestry (2015 - Present)
project for "Little Free Libraries in Armenia" (Vanadzor and Yerevan) as coordinator of the
- Tapestry "Der tanz" gift to President of Germany
workshops with children (2015 -
Joachim Gauck 07/2016 in gratitude to the recognition of the Armenian genocide by Germany.
2016
Study armenian language in Birthright
(August-January).
Armenia center. Learn the gobelen technique.
2016 - 2018
SEE LINK
- "Vive" (2017), exhibition of tapestries
SEE LINK
commemorating the Armenian genocide
Group of studies, research line Teaching and Psychoanalysis of the Institute of Education of the Faculty of Humanities and Education
- "Femenino" (2018), collective exhibition
SEE LINK
- Gallery Exhibition
SEE LINK
- I coordinate atelier “Tejido Poético”
SEE LINK
Sciences, directed by Ana María Fernández Carballo. 2017-2018
Creation of the space La Otra Casita, the space is artistically intervened for the care of babies.
(August-November 2018). I teach how to knit poetry SEE LINK
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with my technique, and Armenian needles.
Background
Beginnings
Winter was beginning in Armenia, the house was sheltered but the pieces of wool were falling off like the leaves of the trees. All this struck me because it was the first time I felt the hardness, or cruelty, of the cold, and among the whiteness of the snow, I began to live the images beyond the visual: as a shelter and refuge. Symbols, colors and ancestral techniques in each fabric could touch just by being looked at. They could be reached from almost anywhere, around the corner or lying on a balcony. At the time, I was volunteering with the Birthright Armenia program, working to develop artistic expression with children. Although my free time was scarce, I was fortunate that a mother taught me how to weave there when I was amazed by her tapestries. However, as soon as I learned her technique, I modified it. I suppose it was naturally affected by my writing and painting practice.
I knit poetry because I intend to shape a space that protects from the coldness of conventional talk. 4
About the Technique "Gobelen" is what they called the technique they taught me. But from the beginning I used the needle as a pencil to write with images, so I needed to "delineate" or sometimes unweave and go through the canvas as it emerged. I adapted the technique by weaving on the reverse side and using an auxiliary needle to accommodate key points. With this method of weaving, I was able to connect what I needed to express myself: poetic writing, with the visuals of painting but the sheltered feeling of the fabrics. I also found the technique itself poetic. The canvas is wounded at each point, the wound is part of the work, develops the work and is woven with strength but without rigidity, moving in oscillations, seeking connections. This way of weaving affects the content: the themes approached and the inuences used in the work.
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On the Inuences While I was in Armenia, I noticed there was no lack of images that
people and the courage he had to denounce what was happening, turns
impressed me, that led me to create stories. The women painted by
each of his works into sacred material for those seeking to process and
Minas Avetisyan, with those colors, in those landscapes–what life do
heal. Armenian art undoubtedly has this quality.
they have? In these works, I feel a little closer to that mystery. That is why a number of my tapestries have these women as characters.
In addition to the works of great artists I studied in Armenia, I valued art in everyday life: in the weaving of a tablecloth or a glass mat, in the
Without a doubt, the work of other Armenian artists, so closely linked
movements of the Armenian women I came to admire.
to traditions and history, is always raw material for me. Even though they are no longer, they left powerful impressions in their wake. This is
In my experience, the raw materials and inuences always simply
not only true because they were talented with their media, but because
appeared, there was neither a quest nor a vision. However, being in a
they understood the importance of art for the people. They made art
land rich in culture, I found the conditions to create and everything that
from that position consistently, many risking their lives to do so. This is
had impacted me would accompany me in my return to Uruguay.
admirable. I do not know what to say in the face of human cruelty, what to say in the face of the atrocities experienced by Armenians. The clarity of Siamanto's poetry, his ability to put into poetic images the pain of an entire
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"Vive" Exhibition In the context of the 102nd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Curatorial text by Nana Shakhnazaryan
Composed of ancient Armenian themes, the weaved fates of these women suggest a generational trauma of the past, still vibrating in living bodies—growing in a cultural womb, nourished by the memories of her descendants. The colors, strikingly joyous, beg for remembrance and some triumph in existing, even if it is in a nameless, dismembered state. They are the primary colors of classic Armenian carpet work rearranged to weave the face of
“The work featured here is a vibrant invitation to recognize,
the weaver.
mourn and celebrate the lives of women swallowed by deserts, drowned in rivers, forcefully dissolved in a sordid
As the collection fades into the monochromatic stained
history of rape, conquest and genocide. Through this
paintings, the elements of the natural world that appear
painstaking medium, traditionally a woman's work, there comes a reclamation of the female form- reclaiming its dignity in the face of humiliation, its survival in a time of war, its fertility in a time of sterility.
in all other works are amplified: the seeds, the trees, the mountains and the sky. Made from tuff (a rock made of volcanic ash that is featured as prominently in both modern and ancient Armenian architecture) the works are very literally born from the earth. The whispers of faces and the sighs of shadows suggest a foundational truth: these women existed and continue to exist.
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Vision In front of love, in front of anguish and death ... simply in front of life, what can be said? Sometimes nothing, or sometimes poetry.
My bond with Armenian weaving and poetry grew spontaneously and organically whilst I was volunteering in Armenia. When I returned to Uruguay, I felt that I lacked the time to learn more about symbologies and the Armenian textile art. After the "Live" exhibition I thought that my need to weave would dissolve, that I had closed that chapter of my life with the end of that jour-
The making of these tapestries for this exhibition was affected by my pregnancy. Because of my situation I needed to connect with that Armenian mother who struggled to take care of her children. I was able to weave until my physical condition no longer allowed it. That was when I continued painting with tuff, and the natural color it revealed to me set me on a path to find other Armenian colors, the natural dyes used in Armenia for weaving.
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ney. But then I began to understand that it was more than a journey, it was a language to be developed. Weaving leads me to a way of thinking and making that I can't achieve with any other technique. Knowing this empowered me to organize poetic weaving workshops to process traumatic experiences that do not find forms of expression in the language of everyday use. This entire journey has made my purpose clear to me: to be an artist
who establishes a constant link with Armenian culture, receiving inuences from different works, large and small, in order to then develop a more complex language, with ancestral colors and symbologies, interwoven in a new way for alternative poetic stories. For this I need a new immersion in culture, now that I am more mindful in a conscious search. I need to connect with other images, stories, experiences. I also seek to learn how to dye in order to get closer to the traditional colours, which in addition to being obtained by natural means, are part of the poetics and palette of a painter. I believe that even one tutorial with an Armenian artist who knows of yarns and weaving, let alone a network of connections with other artists from different disciplines, would propel me to take the next step in developing my practice. I am grateful for the opportunity to create a space of collaboration with other artists and beyond the work we all create, I am excited to make those connections.
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With a thread through the past and present to the future, this practice has given me a language through which I can maintain my connection to Armenian culture.