Osheen Harruthoonyan’s Black Garden

Arts Toronto will be interviewing experimental photographer Osheen Harruthoonyan to discuss “Black Garden”, his upcoming feature Scotiabank Contact Photography Exhibition. Osheen Harruthoonyan draws inspiration from a rich tapestry of of landscapes. In his exhibition, Black garden he questions how land can be simultaneously imbued with the cultural history of a people as well as its neglect through the entitlement of those same cultures. Harruthoonyan employs landscapes that signify his own cultural history. His intent is to direct the viewer’s attention to themes of ethnography and the range of emotional connections to the landscape from love to tragedy. Harruthoonyan’s optical and printing techniques merge fore-ground and background to create an otherworldly space. His process represents human intervention into the landscape by hand manipulating his images in a wet darkroom. Tension and atmosphere transform the images into both a visual and emotional experience.