petiteMort 02 - 19 BLACK HUMOUR an informal interview with Amy Sarkisian

Amy Sarkisian’s work references the motifs of Halloween theme and the Goth subculture, combined with her infatuated craftiness to create objects like curious monster creatures, ornamental gem skulls and rifles, apple carved heads, and collages of tattoo patterns. Rather than approaching this subject of darkness in the obvious images of blood and violence, her works often appear comical rather than horrific.

Sparky, 2002

Skull, 2003

Tent-Making Bat , 2003

Creature, 2002

Toy Skull Reconstructions:
Dark Version, 2001-2002

Antique Rifles, 2002

Tattoo Collage: Sea Monster, 2003

Apple Head Doll:
Self-portrait in 2060, 2003

Images of Sarkisian's work
courtesy asark.com
& Anton kern Gallery, NY.

For her recent project "Toy Skull Reconstructions", Sarkisian employed the specialized modeling technique practiced by forensic scientists and archeologists, to revive and visualize the precise face of each toy skull she gathered. The results bears recognizable human resemblance, yet so extreme they seem rather inhuman, with exaggerated facial contours, awkward proportion, and occasional bugged out eyes. Their both generic yet extreme human features are uncomfortable to the eyes. Each of the busts were adorned in extensive Goth style costumes and put on individual pedestals like artifacts, accompanied with large glossy photograph portraits behind them. At first glance, the busts seem goofy and repulsive, but the elaborate outfits and the museum style display demand respect and acknowledgement from the viewers. It forces us to re-examine the culture clichés, and reveals the absurd nature of the much-glamorized dark realm.

Amy Sarkisian has shown her work in Los Angeles, New York, Milan, and Paris. Currently you can see her work in the traveling exhibition "Scream: 10 Artists, 10 Writers, 10 Scary Movies" in The Moore Space, Miami till July 3, 2004.

PetiteMort got a hold of Amy Sarkisian for an informal Q&As. And as a tribute to this West Coast Queen of Darkness, we did a portrait of her, in forensic style:

	From dust to dust, carbon to diamond. With the help of modern science would you offer up your ashes to create a diamond? And if yes, to whom would you bequeath it to? Definitely, I would bequeath it to someone I loved.
	Bat pet? Good or bad idea? Bats have too many responsibilities to be an indoor pet. They have to pollinate shit and eat tons of insects and get all up in your hair, but I would love to have some living in the eaves of my house or in a bathouse outside. My friend's parents had one living in a crack on the inside of their house. Every night at dusk, it would swoop down through the living room and then disappear through some other tiny crack in the ceiling to get outside.
	Most memorable Halloween costume? Disgruntled postal worker.
	*In Scream* 2004, you choose to screen"Phantom of the Opera". Just to get another side of you, what would your pick of the comedy film be? And why? Monty Python's "Meaning Of Life**". You're laughing too much to realize (or care) how accurate the movie really is. I love anything that makes death funny
	When working on the "Toy Skull Reconstructions" series, do you usually have a clear image of the final result when looking at the toy skull, or is the result usually a surprise? The goofier skulls definitely clued me on a few key details. Like, if your occipital cavities are shallow as hell, you'll have bugged out eyes. But I had no idea about the overall characters they would become.
	Do you watch the various forensic TV shows? If yes, which one is your favorite? I've seen a couple, but I always feel like I'm going to get murdered when they're over. One documentary I saw that was very memorable was *"The Body Farm*". It's an area were students and forensic experts can go and observe different rates of body decomposition. What happens to the body during decomposition is astonishing. Those images are permanently burned into my skull.
	Please describe your facial features in details for us... (using composite drawing technique to get a portrait of you.) I have an extremely pale, extremely olive complexion. My head and jaw are square shaped I have a pretty big forehead and eyebrows (straight across). I have very deep set eyes and an unfortunate inherited condition of having dark circles under my eyes all the time. My nose is pretty standard, not huge not small. The tip of my nose doesn't hang down below my nostrils. It ends right were my nostrils are. Then we got a good distance between my nose and mouth, and I don’t really have much of a philtrum. Thin lips. -Oh, and I have a childhood scar (still somewhat noticeable) on my forehead above my right eye. Eyes are brown.
	By the way, where does the name Sarkisian come from? My dad. He's Armenian. X petieMort's composite drawing of what Amy Sarkisian just might look like based on her description above.