SANTA ANA, California — Rachel Hakimian Emenaker paints up to date life in Los Angeles and overseas, however her canvases largely conjure ghosts. The Armenian-American artist’s solo exhibition at Grand Central Artwork Middle at California State College, Fullerton, Deep Roots Amongst Fallen Timber, depicts scenes of gentrification, faith, and homeland in work, ceramics, and installations. However with restricted data current, it’s not clear if these photographs recreate reminiscences from Armenia or the opposite locations Emenaker was raised in, together with Paramaribo, Suriname, and Moscow, Russia.
The one clear level of reference is modern-day Los Angeles, which might be recognized by a big emblem for the native Armenian-owned quick meals chain Zankou Hen. The emblem, a large “Z,” looms behind passersby within the set up “Within a Diasporic Architecture” (2024), an art work composed of 4 batik-on-canvas panels that cling loosely from easy wood constructions, creating a non-public field by which to view the town scenes. There’s nothing on the reverse aspect of the canvases, and no hole signaling the place to enter the set up, so seeing the work requires one to brush a panel apart, like brushing apart a veil and crossing from the world of the dwelling to the useless.
In every batik, Emenaker inverts her linework’s coloration, turning the usually black contours into vivid white outlines. This, coupled with the fabric’s tendency to create translucent and variant pigments, makes all the topics seem as if spirits from the afterlife. There are ghostly grandmothers roaming the streets in babushkas, and eerie youngsters in church garments.
Set up view of Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, “Untitled” (2024), glazed ceramic tile on wood body, with “Traces #5,” “Traces #6,” and “Traces #7” (every 2025) seen in background
Faith reverberates all through the exhibition. One other boxed-in batik set up contains three particular person works: “Traces #5,” “Traces #6,” and “Traces #7” (every 2025). The canvases, which face outward, look as if the artist transposed fast sketches into batik kind, together with church facades, interiors, and scaffolding. An echoing sound emanates from “Untitled” (2024), a squat, ceramic-tiled field on the middle of the set up. The noises it produces aren’t distinct, suggesting a reminiscence greater than a sermon, however the ceramic construction seems prefer it might be the cornerstone for a historic church.
Certainly, Emenaker is as keen on ceramics as she is of batik and portray. She formed giant chunks of porcelain into beads to create “365 Prayers/ 365 Fists” (2025), an infinite rosary that hangs from the wall and drapes onto the ground. She additionally laid down glazed ceramic tile to create the mosaic path “Untitled Floor” (2024), which alternates between scenes rendered in conventional blue and white porcelain with designs painted onto variant brown earthenware. She paints haloed iconoclastic saints in her comicbook-like model, but in addition repeats motifs of bootleg Disney characters, cats, and exploding bombs — childhood reminiscences appear to be intertwined with faith, greed, and warfare.
Might these points be the rationale Emenaker depicts her houses as ghostly landscapes reasonably than strong floor? With out firmly anchoring her artworks to a particular period, Emenaker’s artworks are unmoored from time — they may replicate her previous, or foreshadow a vanishing act sooner or later.
Element view of Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, “Within a Diasporic Architecture” (2024), 4 batik panels on canvas, wood body
Element view of Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, “Within a Diasporic Architecture” (2024), 4 batik panels on canvas, wood body
Set up view of Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, “Untitled Floor,” (2024), glazed ceramic tile
Left: Element view of Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, “Untitled Floor,” (2024), glazed ceramic tile; proper: Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, “365 Prayers/ 365 Fists” (2025), crystalline glazed porcelain, climbing rope
Set up view of Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, Deep Roots Amongst Fallen Timber
Rachel Hakimian Emenaker: Deep Roots Amongst Fallen Timber continues at Grand Central Artwork Middle at California State College, Fullerton (125 North Broadway,Santa Ana, California) by way of Could 11. The exhibition was curated by Savannah Lee.
