The series of twelve polaroids entitled Mother Armenia (Mayr Hayastan) in Present-Day Yerevan was completed
during an art residency in Yerevan in 1996. The polaroids depict three female figures in traditional folkloric
costumes. All of the figures were cut out from the pages of an Armenia tourist book from the 1970s, where they
were photographed in more bucolic settings. With their make-up, the ubiquitous braids and satiny costumes,
they are the glamorized, almost-campy fantasy-images of the Armenian villager, whose customs and culture is
at the root of Armenian identity.
Travelling to Yerevan in 1991 and 1996 (for two months on each visit) was an eye-opening experience.
The grim reality of the run-down poverty-stricken city did not, at least in its appearance, match my idealized
Diasporan vision of what the "homeland" should look like. To present a more honest picture of this contradictory
situation, I decided to photograph the figures against the typical views of Yerevan that represented the daily
reality that I found.
Taking advantage of the limitations of the Polaroid camera, I was able to get the right amount of blur so that
the female figures appear like ghostly apparitions, either dancing triumphantly or offering bread
(as in the typical hospitality photograph) over a less-than-majestic kingdom. In this way, the dancers mirrored
the hopeful expectations that hovered in my mind throughout my time in Armenia (and which were not always
disappointed), as I learned to live with and appreciate the contradictory aspects, the essential bittersweetness,
of the experience.
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