Ripsime spoke to us at Art Plugged about the current situation in Artsakh and her print series which directly supports those affected: “When I messaged you, the war had broken out and civilians were getting targeted. Much of this time, I wasn’t able to reach my family. Between when it started, which was about 2 and a half months ago until now, it has escalated dramatically. Two weeks ago, they signed ⅔ of Artsakh away to Azerbaijan and over 100,000 Armenians have now been displaced.
As a result of things changing so quickly, I have rewritten and written this email several times … right now there are over 100,00 displaced Armenian refugees that need our help! Many of them have lost their homes with the majority of them unable to go back. Some of them are even without passports and have only the few belongings they managed to scrabble together before being evacuated. Others who have been forced out of their homes are burning these houses down so they don’t have to watch them be occupied.
I have been doing ‘Art for Artsakh’ for the last few months with all money raised being sent to the people of Artsakh directly on the ground. I was able to reach my uncle who was driving around delivering supplies (as he remained in this area) and was directing all funds here. Further, my family was hosting about 15 other people (once they evacuated) in our flat in Yerevan, some of these people had their homes completely destroyed. Most of my family are from Artsakh so I know this place well hence why I was reaching out to reporters, photographers and other news outlets in order to spread awareness and provide help where needed.
Generally, I have been selling a wide variety of works (which I have been publicising on my instagram) but many people have been gravitating towards the same kinds of pieces, so I decided to do prints. I think that these kinds of line drawings really reflect the kind of mysticism that Artsakh and the land holds so I thought it would be beautiful to do something like this with all proceeds going to help. “
Additionally, the Protect ARTsakh Auction takes place between the 14th and the 20th of December, and “presents 78 lots by 60 multidisciplinary artists from four continents – featuring paintings, photography, sculpture, illustration, textile and even jewelry. All proceeds will go towards those impacted by the current situation in Artsakh (otherwise known as Nagorno-Karabakh).”
https://www.instagram.com/protectartsakh/
https://www.instagram.com/ripsime.xyz/
https://armeniafund.ejoinme.org/donate
https://artscoops.com/auctions/protect-artsakh
©2020 Art for Artsakh, Project Artsakh
Verity Babbs is a History of Art graduate from the University of Oxford, artist consultant, writer, and podcast host. Her written work focuses on London’s contemporary art scene
