NOEL OGANYAN
My practice often explores identity through the means of gender, sexuality and beauty. One's identity can never be stable, it is constantly changing and I find it fascinating to follow personal development. My recent work documents the evolution of my own identity and aesthetic. My practice helps me to accept myself for who I am as I challenge myself to find beauty in the body that I have always hated and rejected as a queer transgender person. In my life and practice there was always the presence of some invisible deity I was looking for. And I myself became the result of this long search, the one whose appearance I foretold.
'Narcissus' is a fashion film which explores and adapts the classic narrative and aesthetic of the Greek myth Narcissus. It experiments with the visual identity, references various eras in art, particularly paintings. In regards to fashion, it combines elements of the Victorian style, punk and sci-fi to create a unique visual experience. It was also presented as a performance making the creation process the live art itself, the set design was improvised by me on the spot, too.
credits:
creative direction / style / set deisgn - Noel Oganyan (@forrest.flowers)
photography - Simeon Sapaiev (@smn_culture)
model - Alex Rogers (@bargainbooze_)
fashion design - Sonia Trefilova (@sonia._._t) / Alice Tola (@alice.tola) / Noel Oganyan
'Forrest Flowers' is a band lead and managed by me. Writing songs and performing live has been my main medium of expression. Due to the performativity of our act I don't tag out music with any labels but essentially it is DIY, experimental, alternative, post-punk and even theatre. The debut EP Dumpster Diving is scheduled to be out 22nd February 2019 along the launch performance at the Rocksteady Dalston.
'Noel Goes To Moscow (And Feels Immotal)'
'Nothing'
'With Love' is a personal project which reflects on my difficult relationship with my mother. My traditional Russian family has rejected my identity as trans, gay and queer. The disapproving thoughts from my family always sit at the back of my mind. My dream has always been to be able to talk closely to my parents and share my emotions. These postcards are all addressed to my mum, yet were never sent. I would only have sent them to her knowing that they would be destroyed. When I am writing, it feels like I am praying, but my mum, like a vicar, only absolves the sins she picks and chooses. With this project, I challenge myself to own my identity, which is the only reason I can continue to endure the contempt from the closest people. The hero of Günther Grass's novel called the books the "coffins of words". I think postcards are the same story, with the only difference being that it is exclusively cremation.
The 'Poirot' film creates the identity for a fictional character and provides clues to their personality through little details without showing their appearance. I find the lo-fi film aesthetic and the 'investigation' narrative curious as it allows for imagination and personal interpretation, which is one of the basic attributes of fiction. Curiosity turns into interest, interest into affection, affection into love. However, it is not about romance, although everything that is about Poirot is to some extent about romance.
A wooden box with a lens viewfinder was created inspired by the Victorian optical experimentations. The box is essentially a very small cinema, with its personal interior and screen.
I have initially created 'The Foil Radio Station' as a series of podcasts elevated to the fictional world's power with its own characters, news, shows, weather, etc. I have then developed it into a live internet radio with its own studio, where anyone is welcome to join the voices of the radio. I ask "tell me all the secrets that you have never told anyone" and they usually tell, I find this border between hyper-private and hyper-public in radio very curious. Another purpose of this project is to explore the relationship between a novel and sound as two different mediums. The fictional narrative of the Foil Radio is beyond physical and eternal and, therefore, turns this radio station into an alternative universe only broadcasted sonically.
I have distributed 'The Foil Radio Station' podcasts on audio tapes. It was also exhibited on a final foundation show, where it was turned into an interactive installation.
The sketch work, storyboard, inspiration and initial ideas for 'The Foil Radio Station' project.
The first look of the 'Fluid' project is a reflection and a visual exploration of trans masculine identity. Chest binding is a casual ritual for transgender men and genital reconstruction surgery requires the skin transplanted from one of the arms.
In order to take the risk of distributing the morals that are considered ridiculous, in order not to pay any attention to the cultural norms, in order to become admirable in the eyes of others, one must temper their nature to the degree of severity where no one would be able to question their masculinity.
'Epitaph Etudes' is an on-going sound art project that involves music composition and performance on discarded pianos around England to commemorate their existence and give them another infinite life. 'Etude №1' is composed and performed on a piano found in Brighton, 'Etude №2' - on a piano found outside a junk yard in Brixton, London. The process of producing 'Etudes' includes recording each individual piano into a software instrument so it can be installed and played by other musicians, and therefore it is given immortality.
'Substances' is a series of collages on pollution and urban impact on Earth. It an experimental and very texture-led work which combined different materials to represent the imprint that people leave behind themselves as well as beauty of nature and the significance of saving the environment.
I believe that writing is thinking and I find a lot of comfort in expressing my thoughts through notes and written art. The text is dead and it's wonderful. It's about the unknown emotions of the author at the moment when they write the text. It is for these emotions, and not for the reader's interpretation post factum, you can feel relatable.
"A boy, having experienced, let us say, fear on encountering a wolf, relates that encounter; and, in order to evoke in others the feeling he has experienced, describes himself, his condition before the encounter, the surroundings, the woods, his own lightheartedness, and then the wolf’s appearance, its movements, the distance between himself and the wolf, etc. All this, if only the boy, when telling the story, again experiences the feelings he had lived through and infects the hearers and compels them to feel what the narrator had experienced is art. If even the boy had not seen a wolf but had frequently been afraid of one, and if, wishing to evoke in others the fear he had felt, he invented an encounter with a wolf and recounted it so as to make his hearers share the feelings he experienced when he feared the world, that also would be art"
— Tolstoy
'Essays, Thesises and Writing'