Talin Megherian

Talin Megherian (Massachusetts, USA)

Iridology, (Well Series), 2020

uncollage, gouache, ink, liquid watercolors

12.25 x 19.75 inches

Hearing and reading stories of wells informs an ongoing series of paintings I created to collect the memories of the Armenian people. My Well Series invites the viewer to peer into images of wells to experience stories about the Armenian Genocide—often stories of trapped individuals put inside wells to die, stories of people who perished, and stories of people who escaped. Eyes are a common theme in my work. Often disembodied from the head, the eyes I depict can be particular—I paint the eyes of people I know—but in the case of Iridology, the eye becomes a metaphor for seeing. I use abstracted imagery of an iridology chart—which locates each portion of the body within the iris itself, to emphasize the eye portion of the diagram. Highlighting the eye portion allows me to acknowledge my family’s and others’ accounts—the eye that witnesses each other’s stories. I reference this science as another metaphor. Iridology is considered pseudoscience by most in the medical profession. It is an ongoing scientific inquiry yet unrecognized and unproven. It reminds me of the struggles of the Armenian people, whose history with Genocide is yet unacknowledged by many nations.