Tufenkian Fine Arts is presenting "Serj Tankian: The Incandescent Pause", an exhibition featuring selected works by the artist Serj Tankian. The exhibition will run from Friday, July 2 and will be on view through Friday, July 16. This is the artist's first show with the gallery.
A video report on the exhibition, courtesy of "Good Day LA" anchor Araksya Karapetyan, can be seen below.
Read full article: SERJ TANKIAN's 'The Incandescent Pause' Exhibit Opens In Glendale, California (Video)
]]>GLENDALE, Calif. - System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian's art exhibition is now open for public viewing from July 2 to 16 at Tufenkian Fine Arts in Glendale.
The exhibit "The Incandescent Pause" offers a unique chance to view the artwork through an audible and visual experience. Those who wish to attend are being asked to bring headphones, download Arloopa and listen to the musical pieces he has composed for each piece.
Read full article: 'The Incandescent Pause': See System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian's art exhibit in Glendale
]]>Read full article: Serj Tankian: The Incandescent Pause
]]>Asbarez – Tufenkian Fine Arts will present “Serj Tankian: The Incandescent Pause,” an exhibition featuring selected works by the artist Serj Tankian. The exhibition will run from Friday, July 2 and will be on view through Friday, July 16. This will be the artist’s first show with the gallery.
A poet, songwriter, visual artist, activist, composer, and lead singer for System of a Down, Serj Tankian has always created music as an outlet to express his thoughts and feelings with a level of passion and consciousness that few in today’s world of music can rival. An Armenian born in Lebanon and re-rooted in Los Angeles, Tankian was introduced to the melding of cultures, philosophies, and ideals from a young age.
Read full article: Serj Tankian’s paintings to go on display at Tufenkian Gallery in Glendale
]]>A special piece of art by Serj Tankian has been auctioned off to help raise money for the Christchurch terror attack victims.
The System of a Down frontman painted the large acrylic on wood while in New Zealand and shortly before the events in Christchurch. Titled 'NZ' and described as a "vibrant and joyful work," Serj donated the piece to the You Are Us/Aroha Nui charity, who sold it on Trade Me for $5,450.
"We would like to thank the concert organisers in both Auckland and Christchurch for making the events happen, for Trade Me in agreeing to waive any fees with this auction and for Serj for his kind donation," the auction reads.
"The winner of the auction can either collect the work from Auckland or delivery can be arranged at cost to the buyer."
And the lucky buyer may also get the opportunity to meet Tankian himself.
"If you are in NZ though - not LA - we can arrange that for when Serj returns here much later in the year. Would be happy to do so for you," the auction says.
]]>From Stuff.co.nz
System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian is donating a piece of art to help raise money for the Christchurch terror attack victims.
The Armenian-American singer is auctioning off his painting, titled NZ, with the proceeds going towards the Our People, Our City Fund set up by the Christchurch Foundation.
The fund has been established to help raise money to support the families and Muslim communities impacted by the events of March 15, now and into the future.
On the TradeMe auction page, the 1200 x 1070 x 18mm acrylic on wood painting is described as a "vibrant and joyful work", which he completed in New Zealand shortly before the terrorist attack in Christchurch.
On a Youtube post discussing the painting, Tankian said it was a "sincere honour" to be able to donate it.
]]>
From Newshub
A special piece of art by Serj Tankian is being auctioned off to help raise money for the Christchurch terror attack victims.
The System of a Down frontman painted the large acrylic on wood work while in New Zealand and shortly before the events in Christchurch.
Titled 'NZ', he's donated it to help the You Are Us/Aroha Nui charity, and it's now available on Trade Me.
It's described as a "vibrant and joyful work" and measures 1200 x 1070 x 18mm. The painting has a buy now of $10,000, and the current bid sits at $3030. The auction closes on Monday, April 22 at 4:23pm.
"We would like to thank the concert organisers in both Auckland and Christchurch for making the events happen, for Trade Me in agreeing to waive any fees with this auction and for Serj for his kind donation," the auction reads.
"The winner of the auction can either collect the work from Auckland or delivery can be arranged at cost to the buyer."
And the lucky buyer may also get the opportunity to meet Tankian himself.
"If you are in NZ though - not LA - we can arrange that for when Serj returns here much later in the year. Would be happy to do so for you," the auction says.
]]>
From Newshub
Serj Tankian is a rock star, activist, artist and a master of turning his own stream of consciousness into profound political messages.
He's best known as the lead singer of legendary metal band System of a Down - a musical outfit whose deft fluctuation between haunting melodies and jovial cacophony has been selling out shows internationally for over two decades.
Today however, he's a salt-of-the-earth artist, showing his latest exhibition Teetering On The Edge at The Vivian gallery in Matakana, not far from where he lives with his family.
"I was an activist before becoming a musician, before becoming a composer," he says.
"So for me, one of the most amazing vehicles of the arts, is to be able to bring that truth out about things, and also spread awareness."
Throughout his various art forms over the years, there's a persistent focus on the Armenian genocide that began on April 24, 1915, the day before the Anzacs landed at Galipoli.
Tankian's grandparents were survivors of the atrocities that saw a campaign of mass killings conducted against 1.5 million Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire. It's become a theme that informs and influences much of his work.
"For me, the issue of the genocide is important, because as a young Armenian-American in the US, it was my awakening as an activist.
"It made me feel like 'if there's this issue that's pending, that's being used as political capital in well-known democracies, then how many issues are there that are being swept under the carpet because of economic or political reasons?'".
A Hitler quote punctuated by a blood spatter, a violin stabbed with its own bow - just two of Tankian's visceral commentaries on the dark side of humanity, each set to spine-tingling musical compositions by the artist.
It's a stark juxtaposition, viewing these confronting works in the serenity of the Matakana countryside, but it makes perfect sense considering how Tankian feels about Aotearoa.
"It's the best place on the planet," he says.
"The first day I was in the middle of the city in Auckland, I just felt extremely comfortable like I'd never felt anywhere else."
Despite having an "intuitive feeling of belonging" to New Zealand, our government's stance on the genocide that cut Tankian's family tree short with unspeakable cruelty poses a problem for him.
We recognise the Jewish Holocaust of WWII, as well as the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia and East Timor, but the genocide of the Armenian people during WWI continues to go ignored.
"A lot of New Zealand soldiers during WW1 helped victims of the genocide, helped refugees, it's in our archives in New Zealand," Tankian says.
"I think it's important that New Zealand act with courage.
"Just say: 'This is the truth of history, the majority of nations around the world have recognised the Armenian genocide, the Vatican has, Germany has.'
"I don't think that we should deal with anyone's threats.
"We should look at history with courage and honesty and deal with it accordingly."
Serj Tankian's Teetering On The Edge is showing at The Vivian gallery in Matakana until March 17.
From Kay Bazzard
It's a really interesting idea - to blend an artist's two consummate passions, the composition of music and painting, into an artwork which can be accessed by a specially designed app that reads an image and plays music specially designed for it. Serj Tankian, an Armenian-American musician and artist, will be in Napier to to exhibit his interactive artwork at Boyd Dunlop Gallery in Hastings Street over the Art Deco Festival.
Many will know him as the frontman of the metal band System of a Down. Each of the exhibited paintings is accompanied by a musical score composed by Tankian that can be accessed via the use of a mobile app called Arloopa, available free for iOS and Android devices. Using optical recognition, the app recognizes the painting and allows those at the exhibition to listed to the complementing musical score played through a smartphone or tablet and best experienced using headphones. The Boyd-Dunlop Gallery exhibition opens on February 16 and runs to March 6.
Richard Boyd Dunlop says, "I am excited about the show because it's very original and unusual work that fits well with this gallery."
Entitled 'See Music, Hear Art', the exhibit highlights Tankian's paintings and limited edition archival prints. Powerful, thoughtful and bold, Tankian's visual works and attached musical scores allow guests to have a multi-sensory experience and "hear" a composition.
Tankian says, "The urge came to me in the discovery that music has become so temporal and devalued in the world today, so I wanted to create an exclusive experience...something unique for someone to hold so they become the only person to experience this. I'm aiming to have people SEE the music and HEAR the art, using a modern app."
Original artworks will be available for purchase with a selection of limited archival prints for sale. For details, see https://boyddunlop.com. Visitors are encouraged to download the app ahead of visiting the gallery and to bring along with them a set of headphones to be fully immersed in the sight and sound user experience. To download the free Arloopa app, please visit https://arloopa.com.
]]>From The Vivian
Watch an in-depth Q&A with Serj Tankian centered around his artwork and what inspires his creations.
Filmed and edited for The Vivian gallery in Matakana, New Zealand for Serj's "Teetering On The Edge" exhibit held at the gallery from February 2 - March 17 of 2019.
]]>Serj just finished hand painting these archival reproductions of one of my favorite Eye For Sound artworks “Clock Crucifixion”. Only made 5 of these and customized each one, including a very unique Artist Proof. Check them out at the links below.
http://shop.eyeforsound.com/…/clock-crucifixion-hand-painte…
http://shop.eyeforsound.com/…/clock-crucifixion-hand-painte…
]]>LA’s tastemaker art gallery, Art Angels, will present Eye for Sound's "Marbelized Words" for two weeks beginning August 15 at the Art Angels Gallery, 8899 Beverly Blvd, bringing together artwork and music across a wide range of styles from two of the area’s notable artists, Serj Tankian from musical group System of a Down and CANTSTOPGOODBOY.
The two artists will be presenting all new works at Art Angels Gallery, including a piece they collaborated on together. Additional special musical collaborators for the works of CANTSTOPGOODBOY will also be featured.
"Marbelized Words" is free to attend and promises to be an emotive and eye opening experience, merging artistic and musical genres in an entirely new way.
Eye For Sound is a revolutionary concept developed by Serj Tankian of System Of A Down. Centred around a cutting-edge app for iOS and Android devices, Eye For Sound provides a fusion of art and music easily accessed through a smartphone or tablet making the experience personal and unique to each user. By exploring the simultaneous connection between art and music via optical recognition, each user experiences a one of a kind stimulation of the senses. More information about this process can be found at http://www.eyeforsound.com.
Speaking about the idea behind Eye For Sound, Serj Tankian said: “I’m aiming to have people SEE the music and HEAR the art. Using a modern app, we’re able to take Kandinsky’s Synesthesia to a whole new level”.
Founded in 2013, Art Angels is LA’s hottest new gallery for celebrities and tastemakers alike. A refreshing antidote to the usual stuffiness associated with art galleries. Owners Kat Emery and Jacqueline Napal have curated a stunning range of ultra-modern works and become experts at spotting artists on the rise who are exclusive to Art Angels. Their Los Angeles space is full of future focussed contemporary art, which makes the Eye For Sound a perfect fit. Kat Emery said: “We are always looking for art that pushes the boundaries and Serj’s concept with Eye For Sound is an incredible example of that”
Dates: 15th August to 31st August, 12pm – 5.00pm
Entrance: Free
Address: 8899 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Website: www.artangels.net and www.eyeforsound.com
Serj Tankian's Eye For Sound will debut it's second group exhibit on June 6 at New Museum Los Gatos in Northern California. Exhibiting artists include Serj himself, Tom Morello and Scott Hepburn, Colin Frangicetto, Daniel Carter, CANTSTOPGOODBOY, Michael Dee, Leonardo Cuervo, Joseph Arthur and Shannon Novak.
The interactive exhibit will be featured as part of the grand re-opening of New Museum Los Gatos in their brand new facility right in the center of of the city.
The museum address is 106 E. Main Street, Los Gatos, CA 95030
Opening day events that begin at noon and conclude at 4pm will be free to the public.
Some of the exhibiting artists will have limited edition lithographs for sale made available within the museum.
The exhibit will run through September 27, 2015.
More info on New Museum Los Gatos can be found on their website - http://www.numulosgatos.org
]]>A sleepy town north of Auckland doesn't fit the typical rock 'n' roll lifestyle but Serj Tankian has always defied convention.
The frontman of System of a Down now calls New Zealand home, and lives on a rural property about an hour's drive north of the City of Sails.
His love affair with Aotearoa began 13 years ago after his Grammy Award-winning band performed at the Big Day Out.
"I had an intuitive connection, a feeling of belonging that I never felt elsewhere," he told the Herald on Sunday.
Tankian is revered in hard-rock circles. His chart-topping band has been nominated for four Grammy Awards - winning the gong for best hard rock performance in 2006 - and sold 12 million copies of its 2001 breakthrough album, Toxicity.
Life could be "pretty full-on" in the sprawling mass of Los Angeles, which is part of the reason the 47-year-old moved to New Zealand.
Tankian won't reveal the location of his bolthole for fear of being hounded by fans, as Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman has been at his Great Barrier Island hideaway. But he is more than happy talking about why he ditched California.
"Kiwis are calm and diplomatic. No one jumps on you and tries to take your head off. It makes you feel comfortable," he said.
The list of musicians who have popped in for a visit would make any self-respecting rock fan green with envy. "[Rage Against the Machine guitarist] Tom Morello was here last year to play with Bruce Springsteen. He came up and we went for a nice swim and got some fish," Tankian said. "Maynard [James Keenan of Tool] came over to our place a couple of years ago. I met Trent Reznor [of Nine Inch Nails] last year after his show."
Tankian said New Zealand allowed him space that spurred his creativity. He wrote much of his latest solo material here and collaborated with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
"I like to be in a more isolated environment. Auckland's pretty busy, obviously, but I just need a calmer setting to create."
Tankian is also a talented artist and is behind the Asahi Eye For Sound exhibition, which ends a two-week season at Auckland's Silo 6 today.
Eye For Sound is a fusion of art, music and technology, with paintings accompanied by a piece of music accessed on a smartphone app.
"I've always wondered about the link between visuals and music. I was curious to see how this would work, and the realisation was that the multisensory experience is more powerful than a single-sensory experience in art and music."
While Tankian is now a proud New Zealand resident, his music still takes him away from his scenic paradise, including on upcoming System of a Down tours of Europe, Canada and South America.
He's not the only prominent star to have fallen in love with New Zealand. This week, Eagles' guitarist Joe Walsh returned to Hawke's Bay, the scene of a 1989 life-changing "epiphany" which he credits with helping him quit booze and drugs.
He said the area, especially Otatara Pa, was one of his most cherished spots.
]]>For the first time ever in New Zealand, Serj Tankian (System of a Down) presents Eye For Sound, a cutting-edge fusion of art, music and technology, featuring artists and musicians including Bic Runga and Boh Runga, and Serj Tankian himself.
Using optical recognition via your smartphone or tablet, each artwork unlocks a virtual treasure trove of music and interactive content. Proudly brought to you by Asahi, Eye for Sound is an unmissable art event, held in the unique environment of Wynyard Quarter’s Silo Six.
Check out photos from the Eye For Sound opening party here.
Tankian states, “I’m aiming to have people SEE the music and HEAR the art. Using a modern app, Eye For Sound, we’re able to take Kandinsky’s Synesthesia to a whole new level."
“Living in New Zealand a good part of the year, I am lucky to have befriended really cool musicians and visual artists, some of whom will be participating in the group. Everyone is excited about the prospect of building a bridge between visual art and music and showing off pieces never seen before.”
]]>From 3News
The frontman for rock band System of a Down has launched an interactive art show in Auckland.
Serj Tankian's Eye For Sound is an app that pairs musical scores with different works of art.
The New Zealand-based musician painted and composed all of his pieces, and also convinced Bic and Boh Runga to take part.
The exhibit is at Silo Park.
Check out the full video interview HERE
]]>By Andrew Fish
For Iconic Interview
I’m still running iOS 5, which means I have ad-free YouTube, native Google Maps, and a smartphone experience that’s more like playing with bubbles than sifting through index cards — which would you rather do? It also means my outdated phone isn’t compatible with many of the latest apps and I wasn’t going to be able to use it at Serj Tankian’s multimedia exhibit, Disarming Time, last month, which required iOS 6 or higher to experience his latest piece of innovation: an art show where each painting is intertwined with a piece of music. Though I refused to budge on my increasingly irrational anti-update stance, I was determined to fully experience the event that had gathered this eclectic crowd. You know something interesting is going on when Tom Morello, Moby, and Richard Dekmejian, a world expert on the history of genocide, are all in the same room.
So I promised my friend an enormous sandwich at Fat Sal’s if he would forego the full-immersion element of the show and lend me his iPhone (that was no longer compatible with his snap-on charger since his iOS 7 upgrade, which, I felt, further validated my decision to live in the past). Upon our arrival at the bustling Project Gallery in Hollywood, however, he’d realized he had forgotten his new iTunes password and sat down to figure it out. Luckily, I’d brought a backup friend. This one had a rickety Android with 20% battery life that couldn’t handle multimedia texts, which he handed to me with a gracious, hopeless smile. I downloaded the app, plugged my iPhone headset into the foreign device, and with childlike faith aimed the camera at a painting.
A sound crept in, smooth and low, and the clamor of 100 conversations melted away until all that remained was the painting, the music, and me. The back-up friend was definitely getting the sandwich. Once “Space Clock (Green)” — a burst of emerald shades, quicksand-like enveloping a handless clock — had taken me with a softly wandering beat, I moved on to “Space Clock (Blue),” which mirrored the previous with the addition of what I can only describe as audible snowflakes, or maybe stars. Nearly all of the 22 multimedia pieces featured deconstructed clocks surrounded by color and abstract shape, with companion musical compositions that varied as wildly as the moods and hues of the respective paintings. “Timeless” and “Self Portrait” were fast and fun, “Grieving Banner” evoked a jarring sadness, and I found myself at their mercy.
“That’s the cool thing,” Tankian told me during our chat a few days after the show. “You can display the dynamics of different emotions with different pieces right next to each other. One is totally black and white and very dark and gloomy, and the next one is bright neon red and happy and uplifting — and you can do that with an exhibit like this. But that’s also my records. You can’t pick the one thing. Let’s use multiple emotions, let’s play with as many colors as possible, because that’s fun! Why not? Why just stick to one mood, one emotion, one color?”
That last bit pretty well sums up Tankian’s M.O. since day one — leveraging his weight as a musician to create unexpected scenarios: axe-shredding tracks shedding light on social injustice, hard rock laced with soft melody, the frontman of System of a Down composing a symphony, and now an art show where paintings are cyber-linked to music.
“Conversion, software version 7.0. Looking at life through the eyes of a tired hub,” was the first Tankian lyric I ever heard. I loved that the title track to System’s 2001 album, Toxicity, was viewing emotion in technological terms. When I asked him about it back in 2010, he told me the line was probably a reference to the software company used to own, and in our follow-up interview last year, he explained in detail the inventory management system he’d developed for the jewelry industry before launching into music full-time. With all this in mind, I wasn’t surprised that Tankian’s latest creative project involved adapting a piece technology.
“Tech is here to stay,” he says. “We were laughing at the fact that ours is probably the only exhibit that not only allows people to have their phones out, but encourages it because you need it to scan the paintings. It’s part of our world. You don’t hang out with someone for 10 minutes without them checking their phone for one thing or another. I think you can embrace it and use it in a creative way, but for us it was a convenience.”
Tankian and his crew had experimented with all sorts of speaker arrangements and sonic contraptions before realizing that the only way to create a personal, private connection with the art — a “complete turnkey solution,” as Tankian describes in apropos industry-speak — was the development of his Eye For Sound app. The larger goal, he says, is to broaden the project to include multiple artists for an expanded multimedia exhibition.
As to the exhibit’s central theme, Tankian has been interested in handless clocks as a metaphor for timelessness since the days of SOAD’s 2005 double album, when he bought some antique clocks, broke the arms off, “wrote poetry on them and gave them to the guys in the band as presents,” he recalls. “We also integrated the concept into Mezmerize/Hypnotize. The artwork has clocks where the arms are somewhere else, and Dali-esque melting of clocks, that [guitarist] Daron [Malakian]’s dad, Vartan, actually worked into his paintings for [the album artwork]. So when I started thinking of doing musical paintings, I wanted to integrate that idea of timelessness of clocks.”
When the conversation turns to his recording and touring, it sounds like Tankian is happily taking a break. “Not at this time,” he replies when I ask him if he has any straight-up music plans in the works. “That’s the first time I’ve said that for a while. Yeah, I don’t.”
And any specific plans for System? “As of now, no,” he says. “There are no plans for System or my solo music stuff. I just got off a two-and-a-half month tour about a month ago: a System tour in Europe as well as an orchestral tour. At this point I’m happy just to be doing some more scoring for films and video games and the exhibition, and see where that goes, and take some time — and then come back and do records and touring again. But for now, I put out six solo records in the last six years, [and toured] with three different outfits, including System, over many continents, and I’m like, time for a little change!”
As the crowd began to disperse and my friend, my backup friend and I pondered a late-night trip to Fat Sal’s, we agreed this exhibit was certainly a change from the status quo — Tankian’s upgrade to the dynamics of art and audience, and some breathing room before getting back in the saddle.
]]>From: Nylon Guys
“DISARMING TIME” WITH SERJ TANKIAN
Photo Credit: Nicole Lemberg - Soundcheck 411
Serj Tankian is an artist in every sense of the word. Most of us know him as the intense operatic vocalist/ activist from System of a Down and maybe for his recent jazz and orchestral outings, which have garnered critical acclaim. He’s a poet, a thinker and a major human rights activist. But, as he will tell us, some passions just keep emerging. Last week in Hollywood, the self-taught artisan Serj Tankian packed PROJECT GALLERY full of celebs, musicians and friends like Tom Morello and Moby at his first immersive musical art show “Disarming Time.” Not satisfied with just painting or composing, Tankian decided to marry mixed-media art to his music and then created an app that would deliver it as a whole new experience to the consumer. Say what? Check it: Your phone scans any of his 22 paintings, instantly recognizes them, and then pulls up a menu for you to listen to a song specific to that painting. You can also read the artist bio info or learn a little tidbit about the piece. Whereas you might just whiz through a gallery and take a minute long glance per work, this app engages each individual with a timed sensory overload, engaging the patron on a journey of sight and sound that transcends both mediums ranging from one to four minutes. Since we couldn’t photograph the actual show, allow us to explain: It’s totally trippy. You begin to get lost in the spatter pattern and layers and see things as the music overtakes you. There’s things glued in, photos tucked underneath- a drip that has a shape. The paintings have a whimsy and violence to them; Some are dark, some are day-glo. And all of them have clock faces in various stages as the recurring theme. The music varies drastically painting to painting, ranging from classical Chopin-like piano suites, to full-blown jazz that channels Monk and Coleman, and even dips into a sinister electronic ether. After about 30 minutes, my mind was dripping out of my ears and I got to bounce around the show with the incredibly gracious and infectiously enthusiastic Serj Tankian. The interview below is a cut and paste mash-up of two conversations we had before doors opened.So, you didn’t go to art school.
You didn’t go to music school. What fuels your creativity? Where does it come from?
The only way I can explain it is the excitement of wanting to play.
Was there a formal exploration? Just find yourself at one point saying “Mom, I want to play piano or the guitar?”
You know, its interesting, When I was young my parents always encouraged me to learn music but I was never interested. I would start playing music in college. It was a little Casio keyboard I got as a way of calming my mind from my studies at university. It was an escape, but a healthy one obviously. And that led into this love for music. I never took any classes, I didn’t know what I was doing. And now with music, I kinda know little about what I’m doing after all these years of producing, working with orchestras, rock bands, everything right? And now with the art, I’m back at that stage of not knowing what I’m doing. It’s exciting. Freeing. I always want to be surprised by what muse brings to me and what I can do.
Which came first for this show? The music or the paintings?
The music. That’s where I’m coming from, you know. I’m not known as a painter. This is the first time I’m doing this, you know? So, for me, the idea all together was to visualize the music. I also wanted to create tangibility to the music. So yeah, my process was I would listen to the music and paint. Most my painter friends do. I don’t know anyone who paints in silence.
So you never did a painting and decided after the fact, “I want to switch them to this other musical piece?” It was just a singular experience?
Yes. Singular. I was writing the music, printing the score sheet of the first few bars so that I know this is the first bar (points to the music bars in several paintings) and this is where everything goes and I would grab clock faces which I ordered online, ebay, and all that stuff…
You ever search the real world for the clock faces? Any pawn shop finds or old watch stores?
I went to a place in New Zealand and actually bought some clock faces while traveling. But mostly online. To me, its cool using the clocks denoting musical notes. They’re a symbol of time, yet without the arms they’re a symbol of timelessness.
I was wondering about that. While many of the clocks don’t have arms, there are plenty that do and have specific times marked on them. Was this conscious? Is there any hidden meaning?
I had seen a French documentary called “Gleaners”, who are people that create things from items that already exist, and I found the concept really compelling. In the documentary, a lady had bought a clock from a pawn store that had no arms. When you look at a clock with no arms, your mind just goes blank…
Its unsettling.
It could be unsettling. It could be timeless. To me, it was a profound feeling. So I went out and got 4 or 5 clocks from thrift stores and broke the arms off and I wrote poetry over them and gave them to the System guys and Rick Rubin during the recording of Mesmerize/ Hypnotize. So that’s where the clocks came from and that idea was stuck in my head for years. When I decided to create the paintings, I wanted to bring the idea of clocks without arms into it and the idea of the music visually representing itself. That was the name of my first piece (points it out) and “Disarming Time” is the name of the exhibit.
So I’ve noticed this subtle violence that comes through in many of the pieces and I was thinking about all the struggles you’ve fought against with awareness, human rights, and the Great Crime*…
Interesting. Interesting. I didn’t even think of that. I’ve always been curious about how extraordinary an artistic experience could be if we involve more than one sense.
Do you ever find yourself held back or second guessing your process as a painter?
When I was working on my first painting, I stepped back and asked “Am I doing the right thing and what not.” My neighbor who is actually a painter herself, looked at me and said “Just go! Don’t worry about it…it doesn’t fucking matter.” And I was like “Really?!?” So I looked at her and said “If I feel like doing this..” (Serj leaps in the air with imaginary paint brush and whips it against the canvas) she was like “THAT’S awesome!” It was kinda like that. Its just having fun! Its kind of the same with music- People ask me “When do you walk in your studio to create music?” and I always answer “When I have nothing to do. I walk in when I want to play. You know, when I want to have fun.” Thats how a lot of my songs were written for all of my records. And so this (gestures to the gallery) is that: You walk in, you have a piece of music. It’s exciting: You wake up early in the morning and you’re like “I want to do a painting today. But first (laughingly) you gotta go into the recording studio and create something or find something you have that might inspire you to create a visual piece.
So how did the app “Eyes for sound” come about?
With a lot of tinkering. At first we were putting in little speakers. I’ve got one canvas there that if you open the back there’s speakers, mp3 player, little bluetooth, USB hub. We were thinking about using all this stuff and what not but it got too tech heavy. After a while it got to “Wait a minute..are we creating speakers or art and music?”. At the time I didn’t know about optical recognition but came up with the idea that asked “Can we create an app that somehow recognizes a painting?” A lot of museums give you the thing that you walk around with and its preprogrammed and all of that. This would have to be more interesting. It had to recognize the painting. So I found a company that specializes in making such apps and created “Eyes for Sound” out of that concept.
Do you want to implement this app in museums? That seems like the logical step.
Yes, Yes! This is experiential, its not just an art exhibit. We’ve thought about this. It would certainly work for a museum. But museums never want your phone out. We’re encouraging the phones to come out. You have it on you anyway. It’s also admitting that this is what our life is. Who doesn’t pick it up every couple of minutes to text or something? Might as well use it! One of the reasons we wanted to brand “Eyes for Sound” out separately is that we want to get other artists involved. In fact, we’ve invited a lot of artist friends over tonight not just so they can see the exhibit but so I can talk them into doing a few pieces for an exhibition we can do together. Because that is WAY more interesting than one artist exhibition as far as I’m concerned. The next one, besides doing it with other artists, would be “How do we smell this painting, how do we touch this painting?” Exponentially experiential.
Okay.. Now for the rapid fire. What brings you happiness?
The choice of happiness.
What posters did you have on your wall as a kid?
Wow. I haven’t been a kid in a long time. Gotta think about that. I think there might have been a Farrah Fawcet on there. It was the 70s…6 million dollar man. Steve Austin.
What band would you like to play at your funeral?
Whoah. Morbid.
Art is dark.
Yeah, art is dark. (laughs) I think Sisters of Mercy.
Lucretia?
Marianne! I love that song.
Man. Thank you SO much. Beyond words.
Words and photo by Tyler Curtis – www.tylercurtis.com
]]>The Eye For Sound App that allows you to unlock multimedia content for Serj's musical paintings is now available in the App Store for iOS and Android Marketplace.
Download the free Eye For Sound below:
]]>To fully experience Serj's musical paintings, follow the steps below:
1. Watch the Video
2. Download the Eye for Sound App
3. Launch the App, CLICK HEREand point your device at any artwork onscreen.
4. Try it on all of the images in the Gallery.
]]>WHAT: PROJECT Gallery welcomes multifaceted musician, artist, poet and activist Serj Tankian in the premiere of his debut interactive art exhibit, DISARMING TIME. A uniquely audible and visual experience, DISARMING TIME features a collection of Tankian’s 22 original art pieces: paintings, mixed media and sculptural works paired with a track of music composed specifically for each visual work. Via a set of headphones accompanied by his newly created IOS/Android application ‘Eye for Sound’ (powered by VStory), smartphones are able to scan and recognize art and immediately cue the associated audio track and other content. Guests will embark on a multimedia journey that will allow them to see the music and hear the art. Tankian has scheduled two gallery appearances to sign limited editions of newly released prints from the DISARMING TIME exhibition.
WHERE: PROJECT Gallery
1553 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90028
WHEN: Open to public exhibit dates: November 15 – 21, daily hours 12p-6p
Artist in attendance: November 15 & 16 1pm – 4pm
PROJECT Gallery welcomes multifaceted musician, artist, poet and activist Serj Tankian in the premiere of his debut interactive art exhibit, DISARMING TIME. A uniquely audible and visual experience, DISARMING TIME features a collection of Tankian’s 22 original art pieces: paintings, mixed media and sculptural works paired with a track of music composed specifically for each visual work. Via a set of headphones accompanied by his newly created IOS/Android application ‘Eye for Sound’ (powered by VStory), smartphones are able to scan and recognize art and immediately cue the associated audio track and other content. Of the project which began in early 2013, Tankian says, “The urge came to me in the discovery that music has become so temporal and devalued in the world today, so I wanted to create an exclusive experience…something unique for someone to hold so they become the only person to experience this. I'm aiming to have people SEE the music and HEAR the art. Using a modern app, we're able to take Kandinsky's Synesthesia to a whole new level."
Serj Tankian was on born August 21, 1967 in Beirut, Lebanon and is an Armenian-American singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, poet, painter and political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, keyboardist and occasional live rhythm guitarist of the metal band System of a Down. During his musical career, Tankian has released five albums with System of a Down, one with Arto Tunçboyacıyan (Serart), as well as four solo albums Elect the Dead,Imperfect Harmonies, Harakiri, and Orca, his first real classical symphony. A live orchestral version of Elect the Dead incorporating the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra named Elect the Dead Symphony was released in 2009. He's also released 2 books of poetry, Cool Gardens and Glaring Through Oblivion. In 2002, Tankian and Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello co-founded a non-profit organization, Axis of Justice. Tankian also founded the record label Serjical Strike Records and in 2011 he was awarded the Armenian Prime Minister's Medal for his contributions to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the advancement of music.
About Eye For Sound:
The application ‘Eye For Sound’ was born from the desire to create a unique and immersive musical experience that reconnects the value of tangible products to music. It provides a fusion of art and music easily accessed through a Smartphone or tablet making each experience personal and unique to each user. By exploring the simultaneous connection between art and music via optical recognition, each user experiences a one of a kind stimulation of the senses. ‘Eye for Sound’ was created with broad intention and aims to become a platform for other artists to utilize. Please visit http://www.eyeforsound.com for information and a sample demonstration.
About PROJECT Gallery:
Beautifully designed PROJECT Gallery is a cultural destination located in the center of Hollywood. PROJECT features actively rotating exhibitions with emerging and established artists and boasts a unique and creative event space with a modern edge. In a very short time PROJECT has held exhibitions for contemporary artists such as Zio Zigler, Ian Ross, Jeremiah Kille, Brian Batt and street artist/muralist CANTSTOPGOODBOY. Diversified programming has included a group pop up with LA art venture CARTWHEEL and the highly regarded photography exhibits: 50 Years of The Rolling Stones, Indian Larry by Timothy White and ROCK/FIGHT, all of which garnered national attention. The gallery has received widespread media attention from Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, LA Weekly, BL!SSS Magazine, Complex, Los Angeles Confidential, Refinery 29, LA Canvas and many others. For more information on PROJECT please visit www.projectla.net or Gallery Rep http://www.artduet.net.
From Loudwire
System of a Down vocalist and solo musician Serj Tankian is proving to be a true artist in every sense of the word, consistently looking for new ways in which he can express his music, and he’s found something truly unique in a new project he’s calling disarming time musical paintings.
In the video above, Tankian describes the process in which he creates pieces of artwork based around his music and goes so far as to embed speakers and MP3 players within the artwork itself.
“This is really exciting for me cause I never painted in my life before,” says Tankian. “The urge came to me in the discovery that music has become so temporal and devalued in the world today, even though we love music, anyone watching this and myself inclusive.”
Tankian says that it was his goal with the disarming time paintings to create “an exclusive experience.” He added, “I wanted to create something unique for someone to hold and they’re the only person that gets to experience that.”
In the video, Tankian uses the piano-based piece ‘Notes in Water’ and then shows how he used clocks to represent the music within the painting. Check out Tankian’s artistic process below.
]]>From Blabbermouth
Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet and political activist Serj Tankian has uploaded a new three-and-a-half-minute video clip called "Disarming Time Paintings." Check it out below.
Describing the project, Serj stated: "I have just embarked on a something really exciting and new called 'Disarming Time Musical Paintings.' What that is is I'm writing a piece of music first, as I usually do, and then I am making a painting from it and embedding the music — with speakers and MP3 players — within the actual frame of the painting. So this is really exciting for me, 'cause I've never painted in my life before."
He added: "The urge came to my in the discovery that music has become so temporal and devalued in the world today — even though we love music; anyone watching this and myself inclusive. So I wanted to create an exclusive experience. I wanted to create something unique for someone to hold, that they're the only person to get to experience that."
Tankian is releasing two albums this summer through his own label, Serjical Strike Records. First up on June 25 will be "Orca", Tankian's first true symphony, while July 23 will see the release of a collaborative jazz-inspired disc called "Jazz-iz Christ". Tankian recorded "Orca" in Linz, Austria last October with a symphony orchestra after a successful Kickstarter campaign helped fund the project.
Meanwhile, the 15 tracks on the mostly instrumental "Jazz-iz Christ" feature Tankian performing alongside guests like renowned pianist Tigran Hamasyan, flautist Valeri Tolstov, trumpet player Tom Duprey, former POLICE drummer Stewart Copeland and actor/musician Davis Alpay.
Both albums will be available worldwide on iTunes, Amazon and other digital distributors. Various limited deluxe physical editions will be sold through Tankian's official web site and the Serjical Strike web site.
The musician, who has dabbled in film scoring and writing a musical as well, told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that all these projects are part of his diverse musical interests. "I've made enough rock records, I think, for a little while for me to be able to kind of go, okay, you know, I wanna try different things," he said. "I write all sorts of music, from electronic to noise to experimental to punk to hip-hop to you name it, you know. I do a lot of different things, so I'd like to explore different genres."
Following a concert in Los Angeles on July 29, SYSTEM OF A DOWN will tour Europe throughout the month of August. After that, Tankian will launch a series of solo orchestral tour dates on September 19 in Kiev, Ukraine, with performances scheduled for Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities in Russia, along with stops in Rome, Florence and Padova, Italy.
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