Biography

Born in 1982 in New Orleans, Zarouhie Abdalian now lives in Oakland, California. Her site- and context-specific sculptures and installations are often located in public spaces and draw viewers into participating and engaging with their surroundings. Committed to democratizing performance space, Abdalian explains that her minimalist interventions, based on formal or conceptual concerns, often focus on the features of a site that audiences experience elsewhere in their everyday lives. Choosing to work with unremarkable attributes, Abdalian intends to extend the experience of her work beyond the context of art. Her experimental sound pieces, at times made in collaboration with Joseph Rosenzweig, articulate features of the spaces in which they are installed, using resonance, vibrations, and other physical aspects of sound to alter the viewer/participant’s perception and awareness of the space.