Mirror: Image Augmented Reality Sound

GLENDALE — Tufenkian Fine Art Gallery to present Mirror, an interactive exhibit and book that merges photography by artist Ara Oshagan and music by Gor Mkhitarian. Employing the latest interactive technology, a free mobile app enables the audience to hear Mkhitarian’s music on their phone while viewing Oshagan’s photographs. The collaboration of Mirror bridges the worlds of visual and sound art.

The Mirror exhibit and book release will be at Tufenkian Fine Art Gallery in Glendale’s warehouse district. The exhibit will also include an “immersive” installation in the gallery’s project room. The exhibit will run from Saturday, February 20 to March 12, 2016. The opening reception will feature an intimate concert by Gor Mkitarian and a book signing and will take place on February 20, 2016, from 7 – 10 pm.

The music in Mirror is a selection of songs that Gor Mkhitarian created over a ten-year period. Over the same period, Oshagan photographed Mkhitarian and his band while they rehearsed, recorded and performed this music. Mixing color and black/white photographs, single images, diptychs and triptychs, Oshagan constructs a layered visual narrative not only of Mkhitarian and his band but also the spaces out of which they create music. Mirror couples the images of these temporary spaces with the music that was created from these very spaces.

The result is a new work of art: constructed from two distinct artistic media and united via the latest interactive technology. Simply put, the audience can download a free mobile app, load the Mirror “channel” that is part of the app and when they point their phone towards Oshagan’s photographs on the gallery wall or in the book, they will hear Mkhitarian’s music and see his music videos. Mirror marries the two media and posits a new sensibility: that technology can expand the narrative horizons of personal artistic interaction. Mirror is published by Oshagan Editions.

“We are very excited to be showing an interactive and collaborative project like Mirror,” said gallery director and owner Caroline Tufenkian. “Work like this can open new doors of artistic exploration. Oshagan and Mkhitarian are using technology to bring the universes of visual and sound art closer together and we want our audience to engage in the possibilities they are presenting.”

On Sunday, February 21 at 6 pm, Oshagan and Mkhitarian will be in an intimate conversation about Mirror and their collaboration at the Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale. Their conversation will include presentation of images by Oshagan and an acoustic set by Mkhitarian. Refreshments will be served.

On Thursday, March 3 at 7 pm, artist Ara Oshagan will be talking about Mirror and the process of creating a technology-based project at Tufenkian Fine Art Gallery.

Ara Oshagan is a photographer and installation artist whose work revolves around the intersecting themes of identity, disrupted community, and memory. His first book, Father Land, was published by powerHouse books in NY in 2010. Oshagan has had solo exhibitions at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Downey Museum of Art and the Armory Center for the Arts and his work is in the permanent collection of the Southeast Museum of Photography, the Downey Museum of Art, Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, and MOMA in Armenia.

Gor Mkhitarian’s music fuses traditional Armenian music with both rock and folk idioms. He launched his solo career in 2001 with his debut solo album Yeraz and has released six more albums since: Godfather Tom (2003), Episode (2004), self-titled GOR (2006), Acoustic Folklore (2007), United Fantasies: Exit Ahead (2008) and Spirit (2009). He has been nominated for 14 industry music awards, winning four major ones.

Tufenkian Fine Art Gallery: 4220 San Fernando Rd, Glendale, CA 91204