fig. a, a comme alphabet (shabeeg – parag)

"Bilingual or multilingual consciousness is not the sum of two languages, but a completely different state of mind, defined by the mode of translation. As a foreign person, you are constantly translating, in both directions. You are in a position where you can no longer speak of a mother tongue – you are always in between (two or more) languages and always speaking the words of others." Mekhitar Garabedian in Asymptote Journal, s.d.

With fig. a, a comme alphabet (shabeeg – parag), Mekhitar Garabedian addresses themes of migration and the loss of native languages. Although he speaks Armenian fluently, the artist never learnt to read or write the language as a child. In this work, he shows his attempts to master the Armenian alphabet. On a large hand-woven carpet, with lines and perforation holes that call to mind pages in a school notebook, he lists Armenian words in the Armenian alphabet. Each time, they are accompanied by their equivalent spellings in Latin script. Many Armenians living in the diaspora write the language phonetically in Latin letters. Consequently, non-Armenian readers are able to pronounce the words, but they do not understand their meaning.

The carpet serves as a symbolic object from West Asian culture and trade, circulating around the world as an Orientalist souvenir or design object. At the same time, it is a sentimental and familiar item from everyday life, symbolising both seclusion and social gatherings while evoking certain cultures through its motifs.