{"id":67286,"date":"2025-09-16T09:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T09:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/67286\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T09:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T09:35:10","slug":"listening-to-the-paintings-of-serj-tankian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/67286\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to the Paintings of Serj Tankian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Serj Tankian\u2019s abstract paintings have complex layers of a handful of colors that evoke a deep emotional longing that can be hard to describe. But his works come alive in unexpected ways when accompanied by music he composed especially for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI see music and visual art as extensions of the same soul. When I paint, I\u2019m composing. When I compose, I\u2019m painting,\u201d Tankian said in a statement shared with Hyperallergic. \u201cEach informs the other in ways words cannot express.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole idea of musically composed paintings is something I\u2019ve been interested in for a long time,\u201d Tankian continued. \u201cAs an artist, I\u2019ve always wanted to go to an exhibition, put on headphones, and listen to a piece of music, just like films.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown, Massachusetts, can experience the Grammy Award-winning System of a Down vocalist\u2019s vision in a new exhibition, The Art of Disruption: The Art and Impact of Serj Tankian<\/a>, that opened this month and will remain on view through February. The gallery features a series of Tankian\u2019s original abstract paintings and their accompanying musical clips, as well as video installations, poems, and artifacts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tSerj Tankian of System Of A Down photographed by Travis Shinn (\u00a9 Travis Shinn)<\/p>\n

Viewers can also download the Arloopa<\/a> app \u2014 which Tankanian developed with an Armenian designer \u2014 point their phone at a painting, and listen to orchestral arrangements of keyboards, guitars, and violins that Tankian composed to accompany each piece. The selections range from one to 24 minutes, but most are the length of an average pop song.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuseums are relatively silent when you\u2019re viewing work outside of an event, but when you utilize these compositions that he created, it\u2019s not silent,\u201d Jason Sohigian, the museum\u2019s executive director, told Hyperallergic. \u201cIt\u2019s an experience you\u2019re hearing and seeing at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tankian had the idea of coupling musical compositions with paintings for several years. He thought about writing music for other artists\u2019 paintings, but it didn\u2019t give him as much joy as pairing his music with his own work.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day, I just thought to myself, \u2018I have this composition and I really want to paint.\u2019 How do I make this work?\u201d Tankian said. \u201cLuckily I liked my first painting. Otherwise, I wouldn\u2019t have continued.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\tInstallation view of The Art of Disruption: The Art and Impact of Serj Tankian at the Armenian Museum of America<\/p>\n

The museum has long showcased the work of contemporary artists who reinterpret the story of the Armenian diaspora and the ramifications of the nation\u2019s century-old genocide that reverberate today.<\/p>\n

The Glendale-born rock star first became acquainted with the museum after seeing its display of Jack Kevorkian\u2019s artworks<\/a> four years ago, when he was working on a project in Cambridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soon, he started talking with Sohigian about his own work and his recent memoir, Down with the System<\/a> (2024).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSerj had started painting, and he also came out with his memoir, where he put out a lot of stuff about his life story and his involvement with music,\u201d Sohigian said. \u201cHe started a gallery on his own in Los Angeles that exhibited his work, and he has also shown in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tSerj Tankian,\u00a0\u201cThe Florist\u201d (2023)<\/p>\n

Ryann Casey, a New Jersey-based artist who curated the exhibition, said Tankian emphasized the interconnectedness of his poetry, music, and visual art, and the meditative aspect of making each of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t often get a chance to curate musicians,\u201d she said. \u201cArmenian history is very important to me, and seeing someone express that history and himself through these three different modes was an interesting challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tankian\u2019s works may not be overtly political, but they carry quiet echoes of genocide recognition, environmental justice, and cultural identity, with titles such as\u201cMusic Is a Doorway to the Truth,\u201d \u201cEthnic Cause,\u201d and \u201cViolent Violins.\u201d His poetry explores connections to his activism with lines about yearning for peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us have shied away from that activism,\u201d Casey said. \u201cHopefully, people look at those through different lenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\tSerj Tankian,\u00a0\u201cThoughts\u201d (2022)\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Serj Tankian\u2019s abstract paintings have complex layers of a handful of colors that evoke a deep emotional longing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,366,18,117,19,17,337,2577],"class_list":{"0":"post-67286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-music","18":"tag-painting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}