Programming
Anna Boghiguian
ZYX_XYZ
Anna Boghiguian takes the viewer into the world of her sketchbooks, faithful witnesses of a five-year itinerary (1981 to 1986) that set her soul adrift along the continents.
The title comes from the Greek word Zoie (Z), why are we against life and not with it?
Anna Boghiguian takes the viewer into the world of her drawing books, faithful witnesses of a five-year itinerary (1981 to 1986) that set her soul adrift across continents. Like an emotional force of the tangible, the inner journey in Boghiguian's work is the quest for authenticity through movement, metamorphosis and passage through different societies, different cultures. This inner/outer confrontation resurfaces in the work and creates its dynamics.
The materials used (gouaches and watercolors coming from various countries) and their transmutations bring by this form of "nomadic work" (and of "Arte Povera" stemming from the simplicity of the means), a personal dimension finding at the source the itinerancy, the perceptual sensitivity and the poetics of a transitory experience.
The works are arranged in the corner of the gallery walls to form a triangle symbolizing the breathing of life. A song in four languages (French, English, Greek, Armenian) written in the temple of Anitzana in Greece produces the sound ambiance and a small installation of a boat and its sailor follows from this song. Some poems accompany the exhibition.
Anna Boghiguian completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Concordia University in 1975. Prior to that, in 1969, in Cairo, Egypt, she completed a B.A. in Political Science and Economics. In 1985, she taught drawing in India. She taught drawing, painting and sculpture at Vanier College in 1982 and 1979. She has had several exhibitions including: 1988, Yemen, Gallery #1. 1987, Cairo, Contemporary Art Gallery, 1986, Athens, Art Forum, 1983 and 1988, Cairo, Atelier du Caire, 1982, Toronto, Del Bello, 1980, Montreal, In Studio.