Memory Gates

Kevork Mourad was born in Syria to a family of Armenian heritage, his ancestors having sought refuge there from the Armenian Genocide. He spent his childhood in Aleppo -- one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Impressed from a young age by the layered histories of the city’s architecture and by its religious and cultural diversity, Mourad has remained drawn to the synergies of cosmopolitanism, and its reflection in urban spaces. Suffused with culture and heritage, but also of destruction and loss, Mourad’s work often explores the complexities and connections between memory and place.

Memory Gates was created at Holy Cross by Mourad over a 10-day period, expanding on previous campus residencies with Arts Transcending Borders, where Mourad created collaborative work onstage in performance with musicians. For this installation, Mourad has employed a unique process that utilizes monotype prints applied to fabric, that are then drawn into, cut, and hung within the space. The resulting artwork occupies the intersection between printmaking, drawing, sculpture, and architecture, replete with exquisite detail expanded to an overwhelming, sublime scale. The gates appear constructed from stoney blocks conjured from ancient pasts, reminiscent of the monumental sculptures that would have defined boundaries, prescribed ritual, and imbued power in the cities of the ancient Mediterranean world. By tapping into this language -- at once distant and inherently familiar -- Mourad releases the objects from the specificities of the past and claims them for a shared, human, universal history.

Learn more about the artist at https://www.kevorkmourad.com.