Tamara Krikorian, 1944 - 2009

It is with great sadness that I am writing to let you know that Tamara Seta Krikorian (5 July 1944 – 11 July 2009), only daughter of Gregory Krikorian and the late Seta Mary Krikorian, and beloved of Ivor Davies, died at the Heath Hospital, Cardiff, soon after her 65th birthday.
In recent years she had been treated for essential thrombocytosis (a blood imbalance) and more recently for osteoporosis. On June 27th, at 6.30am, she fell, fracturing her femur. Despite a successful operation, she succumbed to pneumonia and died on Saturday, July 11th.
Ivor Davies

Gyda thristwch dwfn hoffwn gyfleu fod Tamara Seta Krikorian (05.07.1944-11.07.2009), unig ferch Gregory Krikorian a’r ddiweddar Seta Mary Krikorian, ac annwylid Ifor Davies, wedi marw yn Ysbyty Athrofaol, Parc y Mynydd Brychan, Caerdydd, yn fuan ar ôl ei phenblwydd yn bump a thrugain.
Bu ‘essential thrombocytosis’ arni hi dros amryw flynyddoedd ac hefyd, yn ddiweddarach, osteoporosis. Ar y saithfed ar hugain o Fehefin am 6.30 y bore fe gwympodd a thorodd ei femur. Er derbyn llawdriniaeth llwyddiannus, trechwyd hi gan pneumonia a bu farw.
Ifor Davies

A tribute to Tamara Krikorian (The Arts Council of Wales)
Tamara was a leading light in the visual arts world of Wales. Tamara was best known for her championing of artists' practice whilst director of, first the Welsh Sculpture Trust and then Cywaith Cymru . Artworks Wales, the national organisation for public art in Wales. She was instrumental in the development of the careers of some of Wales's most exciting and interesting artists, offering them the support to take risks and multiple platforms and fora to show their work that went far beyond the traditional model of a public art agency.
Trained as a musician, Tamara was a pioneer in the use of video as a means to make art, and is mentioned in the same breath as Yoko Ono, Derek Jarman and Sally Potter amongst many others, who created a context for contemporary artists such as Steve McQueen, Douglas Gordon and Gillian Wearing. The recognition of her seminal influence has only recently been truly acknowledged. Her campaigning led to this art form being legitimised, in the latter part of the 1970s.
Whilst living in Scotland, from the mid 60s to the late 70s, she met her partner, the artist Ivor Davies. She taught in Maidstone and Newcastle and co-founded London Video Arts, before settling in Wales, where her commitment to allowing artists to have a voice made her much beloved by those who worked with her.

Cofio Tamara Krikorian (Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru)
'Roedd Tamara'n weithgar tu hwnt ym myd celfyddydau gweledol Cymru. 'Roedd hi'n adnabyddus am hyrwyddo ymarfer artistiaid, tra'n gyfarwyddwr Ymddiriedolaeth Cerflunwaith Cymru ac yna Cywaith Cymru. Artworks Wales, y sefydliad cenedlaethol ar gyfer celf cyhoeddus yng Nghymru. 'Roedd Tamara'n allweddol yn natblygiad gyrfaoedd rhai o artistiaid mwyaf blaengar Cymru, yn cynnig cefnogaeth iddynt fentro a sawl platfform a fforwm iddynt arddangos eu gwaith, y tu hwnt i fodel arferol asiantiaeth gelf cyhoeddus.
Wedi'i hyfforddi fel Cerddor, 'roedd Tamara ar flaen y gad yn ei hymdriniaeth o fideo fel ffurf i greu celf a chrybwyllwyd ei henw yn yr un anadl ag Yoko Ono, Derek Jarman a Sally Potter ymhlith eraill, a greuodd y sylfaeni ar gyfer artistiaid cyfoes fel Steve McQueen, Douglas Gordon a Gillian Wearing. Dim ond yn ystod y blynyddoedd diwethaf yr adnabyddwyd ei dylanwad yn ddigonol. Gwnaeth ei hymgyrchu parhaus gyfrannu tuag at adnabod y ffurf gelfyddydol hwn fel ffurf celf dilys ar ddiwedd yr 1970gau.
Tra'n byw yn yr Alban rhwng y 1960gau canol a'r 1970gau diweddar, cyfarfu â'i phartner, yr artist, Ivor Davies. Dysgodd yn Maidstone a Newcastle gan gyd-sefydlu London Video Arts, cyn ymsefydlu yng Nghymru, lle gwnaeth ei hymroddiad i roi llais i artistiaid ennill cariad mawr tuag ati wrth y bobl hynny a fu yn ei chwmni.


Tamara Krikorian - CV/Filmography/Biographical

Born in 1944 in Bridport, Dorset, of Armenian descent and only daughter of Gregory Krikorian and the late Seta Mary Krikorian. After attending a Convent School in Harrow, she completed her secondary education at the Lycée Français in South Kensington, London.
As of 1962 she worked at a variety of venues, such as stage hand at the Opera Piccolo in London. From there she moved to Edinburgh to work at a student exchange organisation for French students. From 1966 until 1972 she concentrated on research work. Eventually she was engaged by the Scottish Arts Council
In 1973 she begun making videos in Scotland, being one of the first female artists in the UK to work with video. The first exhibition of video in Scotland instigated by her was 'Video Towards Defining an Aesthetic', at the Third Eye in Glasgow in 1976. In that year she also became one of the founders of the artist led distribution agency 'London Video Arts' . For a while she taught part-time at Maidstone and Newcastle.
From 1984 until her retirement in 2005 she was the director, at first, of the Welsh Sculpture Trust and then Cywaith Cymru . Artworks Wales, the national organisation for public art in Wales.

The following documents are held in the British Artists' Film and Video Study Collection (title, author, publication, date, etc, included where known)
Articles and reviews about the artist:
‘In The Minds Eye’ The Elusive Sign Arts Council / British Council 1988;
‘Tamara Krikorian' (interview) Colin Painter Aspects ISSN 0143-537X 1979;
Eye to Eye- Two Installations by T K [Tableau; Vanitas or an Illusion of Reality’] Fruitmarket Gallery / Scottish Arts Council catalogue 1979. (photocopied) – includes: ‘Some Notes on an Ephemeral Art’ (TK); ‘Making Art Social’ Richard Cork, ‘The Image of Authority’ Stuart Marshall, ‘Vanitas Painting’ Francesca Calvocoressi, bibliography.
Stuart Marshall Bibliography 1979 :
'Video: Technology and Practice', Screen (vol.20 no.1) - 'The Image of Authority', in Eye to Eye catalogue for Tamara krikorian's exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
'Reply to Richard Cork's reply to Tamara Krikorian's response to Cork's introduction to Artists' Video'. An Alternative Use of the Medium' [Letter in Aspects]
'Postmodern subjects/postmodern texts' by Jane Dowson, Steven Earnshaw; published in Postmodern Studies 13.

Articles and reviews by the artist:
'Video Installations in Britain' Tamara Krikorian LVA Catalogue 1984;
‘Performance and Video’ ‘Glory’ [Rose Finn-Kelcey] Art Monthly 1983
‘Performance and Video’ (On Layzell et al) Art Monthly May 1982;
‘Performance and Video’ (On Basement Group et al) Art Monthly April 1983;
‘Women’s Exhibitions – discussed by Tamara Krikorian’ Aspects? 1980;
‘A Reply to Richard Cork – Video Art and the Mass Public’ Aspects (see also Marshall’s reply) c1979;
‘Disintegrating Forms & Three Vanitas Installations’ LVA Catalogue 1978;
Artist’s statement ‘[on disintegrating Forms] from Artists Video catalogue Biddick Farm, 1977;
'Tamara Krikorian - The Monitor ' Studio International Video Issue May 1976;
Video – Towards Defining an Aesthetic (partially photocopied catalogue’ Scottish Arts Council 1976.
‘The Heart of the Illusion’ Stuart Marshall 1981, in Ikon Gallery poster/flier [see below]
'Ben Lloyd', a review by Tamara Krikorian which appeared in Planet - The Welsh Internationalist, issue 191, Oct/Nov 2008 (on-line source)

Programmes:
In The Minds Eye, Unassembled Information, Vanitas, The Question Is Film & Video Artists on Tour 1985-6 Arts Council of GB.
‘Breeze, In the mind's eye, Unassembled information, Vanitas' Video Artists on Tour 1980, Arts Council of GB.;
Unassembled information, UK, 1977, 10 mins, video

Vanitas, UK, 1977, 10 mins, video - "Vanitas came after seeing a French painting attributed to Nicolas Tournier at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, An Allegory of Justice and Vanity . Vanitas is a self-portrait of the artist and at the same time an allegory of the ephemeral nature of television." - T.K.
The question is :Is this entertainmenlt, is this art?, UK, 1983, 13 mins, video

Tate Modern|Symposia|Expanded Cinema, 2009 : Expanded Cinema - Activating the Space of Reception
During the three days, there will be opportunities to visit installations of three landmark British Expanded Cinema installations: Steve Farrer, The Machine, 1978-88 / Tamara Krikorian, Time Revealing Truth, 1983 / Lis Rhodes, Light Music, 1975

Cards/Fliers:
Poster / flier ‘The Heart of the Illusion - Landscape, Still Life and Self Portrait’ Ikon Gallery with (verso) notes by Krikorian and Stuart Marshall, 7th March 1981;
‘Eye to Eye’ The Fruit Market Gallery 20th October 1979;
‘Breeze’ (page from The Video Show’ catalogue 1975.

(source: http://www.studycollection.co.uk/artistfiles/krikorian.html)

Publications:
N/A. Video Show. Installations by Tamara Krikorian, Brian Hoey, Stuart Marshall, David Hall, Steven Partridge, Roger Barnard. London, Tate Gallery, (1976), Catalogue, stapled wrappers, 29,8 x 21 cm., unpaginated (8) text in English with b/w ills. Added: the poster on the Video Show, 60,5 x 43 cm., on the reverse a signed message of 7 lines by Tamara Krikorian.

1. Eye to eye : two installations 1. Eye to eye : two installations by Tamara Krikorian; Scottish Arts Council. Book; Publisher: Edinburgh : Scottish Arts Council, 1979.
2. Peter Bailey by Tamara Krikorian. Book; Publisher: [S.l.] : Orian Hopkin, 2006.
3. Eye to Eye by Tamara Krikorian; Scottish Arts Council.; Fruit Market Gallery. Book; Publisher: Edinburgh : Scottish Arts Council, 1979.
4. Nationalism and Scottish contemporary literature 4. Nationalism and Scottish contemporary literature by Tamara Krikorian. Publisher: [S.l. : s.n.], 1969.
5. Eye to eye : two installations by Fruit Market (Edinburgh); Scottish Arts Council (Edinburgh). Book; Publisher: Edinburgh : Fruit Market, 1979.
6. Stoneworks by Shelagh Hourahane; Tamara Krikorian; Michael Nixon; Oriel 31 (Gallery); Welsh Sculpture Trust.; Powis Castle (Powys, Wales); Book; Publisher: Powys [Wales] : Oriel 31 ; Cardiff : Welsh Sculpture Trust, 1988.
7. Explorations by Tamara Krikorian, Mererid Roberts and Iwan Bala; Artworks Wales published in 'Object' magazine, October 2003
8. The Early Chronology of Video Art (1959-1976).., Mick Hartney, and Video Installations in Britain, Tamara Krikorian, London Video Arts cat., 1984.
9. Artists' Television, Tamara Krikorian, Art Monthly, Feb 1984

More reviews about the artist:
'...RECOMPOS[ING] THE UNIVERSE' by Jackie Hatfield in http://www.luxonline.org.uk/tours/recomposing_the_universe(5).html
Tamara Krikorian was a contemporary of David Hall, and an influential artist of this period who made a number of key works, Vanitas '77 (single screen) In the Mind's Eye '77, Unassembled Information '77, Time Revealing Truth '83 etc., and it is possible to see stills of her landscape and ambient expanded video artworks, An Ephemeral Art, Breeze, '75 or Disintegrating Forms, '76, or the multiple forms of Vanitas, '77-'80. Like Hall she was a founding member of LVA, and instigated collaborative shows of artists' work, conferences and art forums. Krikorian's work was complex in its layering of meanings, and lyrical, often exploring the blurred edges between representation and the real; the static and the moving, with An Ephemeral Art the multi-screened installation, real butterfly pupae hatched inside a row of monitors, interspersed with live broadcast TV in monitors with silkscreen portraits of Krikorian overlaid onto them. Vanitas takes different forms, single screen, installation, and tableau, with it Krikorian created a 20th century technology still life with self-portrait and icons, alluding to the tradition of Dutch 17th Century still life paintings. Breeze and Disintegrating Forms were ambient electronic installations, exploring the technological landscapes as well as the recorded images of landscape, in the black space of the gallery. Jayne Parker's Almost Out was also an important electronic artwork of this period, raising difficult questions for some of the debates around critical theory's anti-illusionism. I've always viewed it relative to Parker's other artworks, The Pool '91, K '89 etc and the wider narrative of her process; the abstraction of theatrical narrative, the questioning of the linguistic norms of cinema, of illusion and the rituals of performance for the camera. Both Tamara Krikorian and Jayne Parker have explored the landscapes of the unseeable, Parker through the language of film, Krikorian through video's latent image.

'The Undercut Reader' by Nina Danino, Michael Mazière in Undercut Magazine (on-line source)

Jackie Hatfield writes in REWIND: Artists' Videos in the 1970s & '80s: Tamara Krikorian was born in 1944. She studied music and began making video in 1973 in Scotland where her campaigning helped establish the artform through a series of influential exhibitions. A founder of the artist led distribution agency London Video Arts in 1976, she was also an influential teacher at Maidstone and Newcastle. She lives in Wales, where she runs Art Work Wales. Krikorian was an influential artist during the 70's and one of the first female artists in the UK to work with video. She made a number of key works in particular 'Vanitas', and 'Breeze'. Krikorian also instigated collaborative shows of artists work; video conferences and various art forums, and importantly published a number of texts during the early period. Krikorian's work was complex in its layering of meanings, and lyrical, often exploring the blurred edges between representation and the real; the static and the moving, and her ambient electronic installations explored technological landscapes as well as the recorded images of landscape." - J.Hatfield (on-line source)


Career Exhibitions:

1975 = Scottish Arts Council, Charlotte Square Gallery, Edinburgh. / Serpentine Gallery, London, 'The Video Show' / Tate Gallery, London, 'The Video Show'
1976 = Third Eye Gallery, Glasgow, 'Video Towards Defining an Aesthetic'
1976-77 = Biddick Farm Arts Centre, Washington, Tyne & Wear
1977 = Galeria Cavallino, Venice 'British Artists Video' / Bon a Tirer Gallery, Milan / Bonnenfanten Museum, Maastricht, Holland, 'International Video Manifestation' / Museum of Modern Art, Paris, 'Tenth Paris Biennale' / Brighton Open Studios
1978 = Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, / 'Video Art 78' The Kitchen, New York 'Video Tape by British Artists'
1979 = Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, 'An Ephemeral Art'. / Scottish Arts Council, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 'Eye to Eye' - video installations. / Acme Gallery, London / The First Decade, Rome, 'Video 79' / International Video Symposium, Kingston, Canada / Stuttgart, Kunstlerhaus / Brighton Festival
1980 = ACE, Video Artists on Tour / Teatr Studeo, Warsaw / 'De Appel', Amsterdam / Lyons, France / South Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
1981 = Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 'The Heart of the Illusion - video installations. / Arnolfini Arts Centre, Bristol / 'Film and Video' The Tate Gallery, London - 'Single Screen'
1982 = Air Gallery, London, 'The Heart of the Illusion' - video installations. / 'British Council Tour of Independent Film and Video', Japan Midland Group, Nottingham, Video Selection of Sense and Sensibility
1983 = Air Gallery, 'Video Installation Show' / B2 Gallery, London, 'Landscape in Film and Video' / 'Frauen Kultur des Uferlose Weg', Cologne / 'Video Art: A History - Documentation Exhibition', Museum of Modern Art, New York / 'Angels of Fire', Poetry Festival, Cockpit Theatre, London / Festival Internationale Studio Visual d'Europe, Bergamo, Itaty
1980-85 = The New Pluralism/British Film and Video
1985 = The Tate Gallery, London
1986 = 'Ten Years of British Video Art', Channel 6, ICA
1977-87 = The Elusive Sign, 'British Avant Garde Filme and Video'
1987-90 = British Council Tour. First shown at the Tate Gallery
1988 = 'Genlock' a travelling Video exhibition presented by London Video Arts and Interim Arts / The Museum of Moving Image
1990 = 'Signs of the Times', Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1991 = 'Video Positive', The Tate Gallery/Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
1999 = Sweetie, Female Identity in British Video. The British School in Rome
2006 = Rewind: The Formative years, Artists' Video in the 70s and 80s, VRC, Dundee Contemporary Arts / Analogue: Pioneering Video from the UK, Canada and Poland, Tate Britain and Tour
2009 = Tate Modern | Symposia-Expanded Cinema, London.