Conversations on Art: Artist Sara Issakharian on Her Recent Exhibition at Tanya Leighton Gallery

Sara Issakharian. Installation view, ‘There is a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there’ Tanya Leighton, Los Angeles. 18 August – 16 September 2021. Photography: Dan FinlaysonCourtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin.

Iranian-born, Los Angeles-based artist Sara Issakharian recently presented her first solo exhibition “There's a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there” at Tanya Leighton Gallery in Los Angeles. Issakharian’s paintings enrapture her audience through candid gestures and delve into the many idiosyncrasies of clandestine Iranian politics through the use of mythology. Her works serve as postulates for a reawakened hope and confront cultural trepidation with frank conscientiousness. 

RICKY AMADOUR: What prompted the title for There's a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there? 

SARA ISSAKHARIAN: Well that’s part of a book written by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The main quote, if I remember it well is, “I think I could stand anything, any suffering, only to be able to say and to repeat to myself every moment, I exist. In thousands of agonies, I exist. I'm tormented on the rack, but I exist. Though I sit alone in a pillar, I exist! I see the sun, and if I don't see the sun, I know it's there. And there's a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there.” I remember I read that in Iran. In personal lives and also in society, Iran is a country that day-to-day faces violence and repression, especially against women. Still people are living and performing their roles as mothers - as people out in society. Someone who lives in the West may look at their condition and think how is that possible? As women who don’t have a right to get divorced, women who don’t have the right to take care of their children without a man’s permission, a woman doesn’t even have the right to leave the country if her man or father doesn’t let her. How do people live in these circumstances? And I guess there is some sort of false hope? Or there is something even if I don’t see it, even though I’m not living it, it’s out there. And because it’s out there, I perform - I continue performing. So that’s where the title comes from. I wanted to say despite of repression, violence, constant changes; first war and the revolution, and then again war, people are still living their lives. 

Sara Issakharian. Remembered Landscape, 2021. Acrylic, pastel, charcoal, and colour pencil on canvas. 193 x 335.2 cm 76x132 in. (ISSAKHARIAN-2021-0035). Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin.

RICKY AMADOUR: The depth of the title breathes such an open vulnerability. Your paintings depict a Manchean response and also play with motifs that are disrupted, yet gracious and silent. Let’s go to Silence Response (2021). Within this work you see different animals - a kind of chaotic presence abounds. Then you see a human face at the center of it all.

SARA ISSAKHARIAN: Did you know this series of paintings and drawings is inspired by Pandora’s Box? The box opens and all of these creatures that have negative connotations come out. By the end of it there is a creature that represents “hope.” And it has been stuck in the box for awhile until Pandora lets the creature out. In the painting, filled with all these creatures, you suddenly see a face that is looking up, and is somehow free from what is going on around it. And it has a different kind of gaze and is not involved with the mess. So, that is what I see as “hope.” Which is not necessarily something that’s outside the box or somewhere outside of our own lives. It is something inside of us. It’s a light that gives you the courage to go on and to have a different perception. I think that in the dark, there is a light. Like in Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem,” where he sings, “There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” I usually put a creature in the middle that has a different direction or gaze as a metaphor for “there is a way out of this.”

Sara Issakharian. Homeward Bound, 2021. Acrylic, pastel, charcoal on canvas. 200.6 × 281.9 cm 79×111 in. (ISSAKHARIAN-2021-0036). Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin.

RICKY AMADOUR: Let’s continue onto Homeward Bound (2021). Again where there is a smiling sun - there’s also a character in the background - and although there are wolves or villainous creatures does it also exhibit a sense of hope or magnanimity?

SARA ISSAKHARIAN: I have a love for humanism. A love that somehow through innocence - and I use colored pencils to depict the inner child - I believe innocence can always win over a lot of negativity. A very large-scale, different creature then the rest of the animals has an innocence that moves things forward. 

RICKY AMADOUR: I see elements of Cy Twombly in your work. Who or what has particularly been an influence? 

SARA ISSAKHARIAN: I get influences from literature, theater, and books - more-so than looking at painters. However, I’m influenced by many painters such as the Rococo movement and artists like Bautista - in how they used composition. His compositions are crowded with human beings and animals. I love Goya because of his insanity and the way he uses faces - they aren’t human beings. I hear a lot about Cy Twombly - and I believe it’s because I use graphite and repeat circular movements. However, I’m more inspired by Arshile Gorky and also gain inspiration from observing children. 

RICKY AMADOUR: Gorky is fantastic. Your work has a complexity similar to that of Persian Miniature artists, has this type of work had a strong impact on you? 

Sara Issakharian. I’m a Hunter, I Hunt for..., 2021. Acrylic, ink, colour pencil, and pastel on paper. 55.9×76.2 cm 22×30 in. (ISSAKHARIAN-2021-0043). Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin.

SARA ISSAKHARIAN: Yes it has. I grew up with Persian Miniatures because my mother took miniature drawing classes and I would observe her doing one face and then another - it takes a lot of work to make one face. Being part of that culture and no matter where you go, if you go to any restaurant in Tehran, or look at any book covers [miniatures] are there. There is something about the nature of miniatures in that following the lines you find depth - it’s not light or dark and there is a sort of simplicity and less ego. And there is also a lot of hunting.

RICKY AMADOUR: I was just going to mention your work, I’m a Hunter, I Hunt For (2021). 

SARA ISSAKHARIAN: There is a lot of hunting because most of the stories are about kings hunting for demons that come in the shape of animals. In that sense I’m very influenced by miniature paintings. 

RICKY AMADOUR: Lastly, where are you located and what defines home?

SARA ISSAKHARIAN: For the mean time I’m in between places whether it’s LA or Berlin, and to be honest after I left Tehran I felt baseless. I have been looking for a base my entire life. Even within Tehran I feel like I don’t belong anymore. A home to me is a place where you are safe and happy and it’s more inside of you than outside of you. You cannot take a country like flowers in a box and just move them. But if you make a home for yourself you can take it anywhere.