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_{Khojo in 2006, photo by serg}

Armen Khojoyan (known to his friends as 'Khojo') is an extraordinarily sociable and generous artist. His studio functions as a meeting point and library for many artists in Yerevan. While being an avid supporter of contemporary Armenian art, Khojo is also a vector for art and music from distant epochs and regions.

A great host and cook, it is at Khojo’s studio that, while savouring succulent fish, you will be lightly scolded for not having heard of this or that artist or this or that musician, and at the end of the night when you beg to borrow one of the books or CDs you have been bombarded with, the answer will always be yes.

Khojo's output is prodigious and the works presented below are a recent slither of his activity. The photographs were garnered from Vahan's visit to Armenia last summer, when he was reunited with Khojo and other friends for the first time in ten years. Vahan was blown away by Khojo's current experiments. Although a painter by training and trade, in recent years Khojo has been turning his hands to other mediums.

1. Sculptures
2. Paintings
3. Illuminated Manuscripts
4. Collages
5. Engravings

[Click on pictures to enlarge]

1. Sculptures

Khojo’s first forays into sculpture have enabled him to grapple with form in entirely new ways. The progression from ceramic to bronze is indicative of growing confidence and mastery. Drawing upon ancient Armenian, Assyrian and Babylonion imagery and symbolism, these initial experiments are modest in terms of their scale (they are currently lined up, biding their time on a single shelf), but they already carry considerable weight and bode well for more monumental developments.

These sculptures introduce us to a symbol or theme that continually recurs throughout Khojo’s vast output – the horns of the minotaur. Scarred and encrusted with ammonite-like shells and arcane symbols, these figures seem to be mysterious, fossilized remnants of an ancient animism, or echoes of archaic hybridism and genomic plasticity

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2. Paintings

Khojo’s paintings draw on symbols and themes from Hindu and Greek mythology. The luscious textures and layers of these paintings frequently vibrate with music. Khojo adores the tabla playing of Zakir Hussein, and the atmosphere of Indian music is tangible in these ‘improvisations’. Jewel-encrusted lovers carnally and mystically entwine with beasts in sensual rituals.

These are Khojo's paintings of the Armenian countryside. They are obviously very impressionistic, as colours such as these are not exactly typical for Armenia! According to Vahan, Khojo paints them as a kind of indulgence.

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3. Illuminated Manuscripts

With these curious productions Khojo looks back to Armenia’s unique tradition of illuminated manuscripts. At a first glance they look to be perfect, time-ravaged forgeries, but in fact Khojo has slyly insinuated his his presence into what was traditionally an anonymous art form. The text, rather than being verses from the gospels, is Khojo’s own poetry. The symbols and patterns in the borders are also somewhat alien to Armenian manuscripts, having their roots in Khojo’s phenomenal eclecticism.

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4. Collages

These collages recycle jewellery and fabrics from the flea markets of Yerevan and conjoin them in richly layered compositions. With Khojo collage is a form of sculpture: one which builds on existing design by reworking previously sculpted and crafted matter. The end products, which recall the (frequently unberable) opulence of Parajanov, have a touch of the macabre about them. From what depths are these mournful women staring at us? Hve they been mummified in jewellery, or covered with jewellery-encrusted death shrouds?

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5. Engravings

Drawing is the base of Khojo’s work and it is in this process that his voluptuous mythology pours forth in its most unrestrained form.

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