Editor’s note: The current exhibition at the Trenton City Museum, “Women Artists, Trenton Style,” includes “Speak,” a new work by Trenton-born sculptor Nora Chavooshian.
In her notes regarding the large forceful work that looms over a gallery, the artist explains how the work intertwines the memory of the historic injustice her family experienced more than 100 years ago in Europe with the more recent injustices experienced by others in South America.
The daughter of the late well known Trenton artist Marge Chavooshian explains:
I am the granddaughter of survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Young Turk regime of the Ottoman Empire. Each of my four grandparents escaped and immigrated to the United States from 1915 to 1920. My maternal grandmother’s story of witnessing atrocities against her family and community and the ensuing five-year struggle to survive and escape Turkey is a personal beacon of hope, testament to resilience, and affirmation of will. Anna’s life has informed the trajectory of my own life and work.
Several years ago I began following the news of the human rights trials in Guatemala, where for the first time in world history a former head of state had been prosecuted for genocide by a national court, as opposed to an international court. The atrocities took place during the civil war in Guatemala which began in the early 1960s as a result of grievances provoked by economic and political life and resulted in the genocide against the indigenous Mayan peoples of Guatemala peaking from 1978 to 1986. The Guatemalan Army instituted several counterinsurgency military operations including “Operation Sophia” in which the army destroyed 626 villages, killed or disappeared more than 200,000 people, and displaced an additional 1.5 million. Forced disappearance policies involved secretly arresting or abducting people who were often tortured, killed, and buried in unmarked graves. The U.S. government supported the repressive regime as a part of its anti-Communist policies during the Cold War and to further U.S. commercial interests while exploiting Guatemalan labor and natural resources. In the National Court the indigenous Mayan people testified to these atrocities and for a unique moment in history successfully prosecuted some of the key perpetrators of the genocide.
During the time of these trials I began communicating with Trama, a 100 percent worker- owned women’s weaving cooperative in Guatemala. The cooperative evolved from a need to rebuild and support their families and culture after the genocide, in which many of the men from the Mayan villages were killed or disappeared. Our connection grew as we acknowledged the parallels between the work of women in my ancestral history and in the Mayan women’s current struggles. The weavers sent me remnants from their textiles and I “wove” them into the sculpture “Speak.” The cascading leathery cracked surface, which is reminiscent of earth and excavated fabric, house the pieces of textiles and hangs from a three-foot-wide human mandible, which references the work of the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG), whose forensic evidence has been crucial for the prosecution. Each colorful weaving is imbued with a life and a history; a collective visual impact that illuminates the indomitable strength of these women.
— Nora Chavooshian
Women Artists, Trenton Style, curated by nationally known Trenton artist Mel Leipzig, on view through June 6. Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, Cadwalader Park, Trenton. Friday and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m., Sunday 1 to 4 p.m. (Time Entry Reservations). Free. 609-989-3632 or www.ellarslie.org.
