111. HRAIR SARKISSIAN: A SPACE BETWEEN RESIDUE AND RESOURCE.

Finding My Blue Sky, Lisson Gallery - LONDON.

Hrair Sarkissian, Residue, 2019, Acylic. 193.5 × 113 × 6cm. Image by Junzhe Yang for M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN).

Hrair Sarkissian's 'Residue' stands as a roughly hewn plaque in what at first appears to be a piece of shrink-wrapped glass, its surface veined with a removable, protective cellophane - a surface, opalescent and shimmering in the sunlight. A surface surely protecting a precious ancient artefact, however, the work is fashioned from moulded acrylic and originates from 2019, momentarily fooling the viewer and provoking a fractured stream of consciousness to try to imagine what informed a work whose title suggests the remains of an event not in view but implied. 

To seemingly wrap a surface is not new within the history of art, an act utilised by Christo, whose wrapping of objects and architectural forms fetishises space. Further back, the swathes of cloth wrapping bodies became a mainstay for Renaissance portraiture, and yet Residue implies the shrink-wrapped surface of a form less bodily and more ready-made, found on the shelves of a supermarket - a runkled texture which immediately implies cosmetic consumer culture. Continuing an obsessive conversation which fascinated art from Andy Warhol's production line of screen prints, to Jeff Koons' impressions of inflatables to Sun Yitian's photorealist portraits of mannequins. 

Traces of previous periods can be sensed within Sarkissian's Residue, from the organic curvature of Art Nouveau and a minimalist Art Deco - the work depicts a naked young woman in profile, bobbed hair and choker jewellery link to 20th century Paris, and in turn relay back to reference of female slaves of the Ottoman seraglio era - a fashionable reference seen within European art in the 19th and 20th century. Famously referenced by René Lalique, whose interest in stylised mythological figures, hybridises art with design objects from perfume bottles to furniture. The influence of the subject's outstretched neck and pearlescent colour palette immediately connect to surrealist artists such as Dora Marr and Man Ray, who akin to Lalique, explored depictions of the body via ultra modern experimental means, embracing the developing technique of solarisation, a photographic treatment which reverses an image creating a halo-like effect, an effect which can result in both negative and positive qualities within the same image. 

It seems near impossible not to make a comparison to Man Ray’s infamous portrait of Lee Miller made in 1930, which supposedly ended the artists' collaborative and romantic relationship due to Ray's reaction to Miller's insistence that the ownership of the image be shared and not controlled by Ray. Man Ray's resistance and response resulted in a painting of a still life of objects, including a gloved hand holding a razor blade beneath Miller's slashed neck. Sarkissian's provoking work continues Miller's fractured argument of ownership and positioning. 

Akin to Ron Mueck's 'En Garde', a seven-foot-high installation of a pack of dogs intimidating and snarling, the audience knows that they are not real, however, the work performs a physical metaphor to consider and witness. 

Could we also view Residue as a three-dimensional conversation prompt?- historically referred to as 'object dialogue', a work created for contemplating an unresolved series of questions, through discussion and interpretation. A provocative presence, more a residual comment on what is left in front, not what is left behind? 

The works form a returning echo to that of Masaomi Yasunaga, also presented at Lisson Gallery, back in 2023. The Japanese artist's work appears as fragmented archaeological artefacts, seemingly ancient and yet made within the modern era. When viewed from a distance, Yasunaga's trove of vessels impresses and remind of characterful silhouettes which mimic the prowess of their original reference and yet through the artists hands, these ceramic-less vessels held together with stones, mosaic tiles and glaze alone testify to the fragility of time - a sense of the ancient and the impending all at once.

Sarkissian continues this visual conversation, the works irregular silhouette appears to be gouged, even chipped away from a previous surface, memories informed by the plinths on display within the collection of The British Museum or The Louvre - decorative works of plaster or stone historically extracted from their country of origin - permanently defacing the original site specific original, creating a fractured reframing - a boarder where an image becomes viewed out of context from its original purpose. For example, a frieze, now viewed as a singular section, often from sacred sites, as tombs and religious spaces. Physically heavy, now metaphorically weighted with further meaning of possible imminent replacement...As global conversations continue to increase to return these elements to their original locations, whereby these jig-saw like pieces would fit back within the spaces from which they were originally taken, forever to be scarred with the trauma lines of extraction. 

Sarkissian's Residue further explores this notion, the hacked portrait of an unknown subject appears severed, provoking the viewer to wonder what the rest of the freeze may have looked like, why is the subject turned in profile? Presented not fixed to a wall, but viewed on a plinth and so offering the onlooker multiple angles to choose from, further contributing to a perplexing sense of benign confusion. 

By proposing a work which is in a permanent state of being wrapped - fascinates - prompting an idea of a continuing state of potential and in so doing changes the sense of ownership. From the vacuum-packed product whose airtight wrapper normally denotes timescale with best-before-date on organic products... Sarkissian's Residue implies a new status, a new state of optimism, that box fresh equates to resale potential, just be careful not to break the surface. 

“I try to engage the viewer into a more profound reading of what lies behind the surface, thereby re-evaluating larger historical or social narratives.” Hrair Sarkissian.

Hrair Sarkissian, Residue, 2019, Acylic. 193.5 × 113 × 6cm. Image by Junzhe Yang for M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN).

Hrair Sarkissian Lisson Gallery, Finding My Blue Sky, Curated by Dr. Omar Kholeif, 67 Lisson Street, Until 26 July 2025.

Photographed by Junzhe Yang.

With thanks to Louise Hayward and Lisson Gallery, London.