Arts & culture, Visual arts

Student artist marks Armenian genocide centennial

By Public Affairs

skulls and newspaper
Detail from “Game of Denial”

When Tara Baghdassarian learned that her assigned artwork would be displayed in the month of April, she knew what she wanted to create a piece for the centennial of the Armenian genocide, to be commemorated on April 26, 2015.

Baghdassarian is a third-year art-practice major at Berkeley. Her piece transformed an empty display case into an arcade claw game piled with Armenian “skulls,” which she created by taking molds of the faces of fellow students descended from Armenian genocide survivors.

The exhibit of her artwork, titled “Game of Denial,” had a short life in Kroeber Hall. Baghdassarian has expressed interest in expanding the project to include other members of the Armenian-American community.

To learn more about her artwork and the story behind it, see this piece(link is external) in Armenian Chronicles.

Related information: A 21st-century problem: Lessons from the Armenian genocide (a Berkeley Blog post)