Hrair Sarkissian Underground (No.13), 2009 Archival inkjet print Edition of 5 + 2 a.p. 125 x 160 cm Courtesy Kalfayan Galleries, Athens - Thessaloniki. Working under the watchful eyes of the Armenian Police Force, for his Underground series (2009) Sarkissian photographed the metro system in Yerevan, Armenia, which was constructed in the Soviet era. Despite the collapse of the Soviet system two decades before, these spaces have become a source of pride for the local inhabitants, a symbol of a past which encompassed power and prosperity. In addition they embody a shelter, keeping people away from the new corrupt and unreliable system outside. For Sarkissian, a diaspora Armenian growing up with an inherited longing for the homeland, it is paradoxical to observe how the local inhabitants constantly seek for the past in the present because within the new situation of Armenia they also feel departed from their own homeland, even though they are in their own home.
