Paradise Garden (2023- ) is a visual exploration of my family’s archives through the lens of Armenian folklore. Blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy, I consider how folklore can be used to reflect on the effects of violent displacement on memory. Drawn to the idea of absence as a form of presence, and to the space between the real and the spectral, I manipulate my family’s photographs to mirror the ways trauma distorts and obscures recollection. By removing figures and body parts, incorporating double exposures, blurred faces, and pairing these altered archival images with contemporary photographs, I further investigate the concept of “postmemory,” a term coined by Marianne Hirsch. In doing so, I explore not only how memories are transmitted across generations, but also how their fragmentation, distortion, and ambiguity are inherited as well.
Through this process, my work reveals the enduring psychological impact of displacement on memory while suggesting that, despite physical absence, these memories continue to linger within and haunt the landscapes from which they were violently removed. These photographs ultimately form a new archive, a reimagined world where memories suspended between folklore and fiction can continue to exist.