Titled after the Armenian word քաշել (ka-shell), meaning “to pull,” this series utilizes a unique relationship between body and gesture. The resulting photographs and subsequent film record action and its aftermath, transforming the body into a painted surface upon which themes arise.

The thick, oily, black line operates simultaneously as a jarring trace and metaphor. Originating in the hand, the site of labor, extending toward the shoulder, where burdens are symbolically carried, the gesture explores the weight of responsibility that often remains invisible, the literal “pull” of generations. Historically, displacement affects not only those directly targeted but also their descendants, who inherit its emotional and psychological aftermath. This multigenerational trauma is often invisible, yet deeply pervasive. For members of a displaced diaspora, the pressure to preserve a threatened culture can become a responsibility they never chose but are expected to carry. Pull intentionally reaches beyond a single cultural narrative, as across cultures, individuals inherit histories and responsibilities they did not choose. The act of pulling becomes a universal gesture showing the continual negotiation between a personal identity and an inherited one.

Pull culminates in a short film composed entirely of still photographs. Sequenced frame by frame, these static images become a record of the gesture performed as the line gradually travels across the arm. Photographed in collaboration with an Armenian photographer, Pull also exemplifies a theme of shared cultural background. The presence of two third-generation descendants of genocide working together adds a quiet irony: a piece about inherited responsibility is itself shaped through collaboration between those who do indeed carry such related histories. Through this self-aware structure, Pull considers how contemporary art can question the subjects it addresses while simultaneously the conditions of its own making.