Art of forging

 His a most unusual exhibition to which the Vancouver public is being invited at the Zach Gallery from April 10th till May the 11th.Not only are we in the presence of an original artist but also of a new from of art,-thousands of years old- the art of the blacksmith.
Miran Elbakyan is an artist of Armenian origin,who had immigrated to Israel and who has been living in Canada for the last three years.His paintings which were strictly abstract had met with great success in Armenia.But always on the look out for artistic renewal he tries out an easy and flexible material:mother metal.
>From the start this quality of immediacy,the elasticity and flexibility of it,fascinated him to the extent that he "converted" to it and even opened his own studio in Israel.
Everything Miran creates is artistic,original and beautiful.His works are elegant,simple and as sober as possible-inevitably abstract."Metal does not lend itself easily to the figurative" he comments," I can crate either classical works,eventually baroque,or else it's abstract,simple".
In his small exhibit-and-sale studio in the heart of the Surrey industrial quarter-one finds a bit of everything.Including,always,some charming decorative detail,as original as this young and blond man with his easy-going smile.
Every creation starts with an idea;if that idea lingers on for two days in his head,Miran will check it with the help of his impressive technical means.There's movement,always, and this movement finds it's expression in the "sketch" which is the first stage-his complete mastery over matter,his unerring feeling for the possibilities of molten metal allow him to make his visions come true and turn into works of art.The blacksmith's art is thousands of years old and Miran respects its traditions.
The studio which he opened for this reporter is full of objects.There are pieces of furniture,a bed, a huge table, one table made of glass and another one of tiles framed by supple motives of wrought iron.A profusion of sculptures with most unexpected details:a violinist balancing on a high stem of grass,a grasshopper near flowers.A feminine figure has been reduced to two undulating lines.A sculpture hint sat clouds,but if one cast a second look,one sees the spread wings of a seagull!-" A simple and straightforward classic rose " as he says,unfolds its delicate petals above a table.
A hole family man,woman,child is suggested by a few extraordinarily masterful lines.To top it of all,your humble reporter has been invited to his workshop where on the spur of the moment ,Miran created a work of art for "The Source"- Right there under our very eyes a raw metal rod a plain iron,turns into a delicate work of art-Miran starts by bringing out a "half-forge" which is a small kiln,very heavy,armored and without a door.He turns a gas burner and very fast flames come out of the forge which radiates a frightening amount of heat.His hands protected by fireproof gloves,Miran, still spearing,puts the iron bar in the forge-Within minutes the tip of the bar inside the forge turns yellow-white,almost translucent.He seizes it,carries it to a real traditional blacksmith anvil and by hammering it,he bends the molten end over the anvil's edge.
He turns it over and goes on hammering and like a flower emerging from its burgeon the metal bar has become an elegant spiral cooling off. Total line the artistic miracle took:4 minutes and 30 seconds.Would Hephaestus the Romans Vulcan's acknowledge this?
"L'art du Metal" ( The art of Metal) of Miran Elbakyan will open from April 10 to May 11 at the "gallery Zack" which is at the Jewish Community Center, 950 41 st Avenue West ( near Oak) from Monday till Thursday 08:30-22:30 and Sunday from 09:00-21:00
Information: bcblacksmith.com or 604-638-7277
Nigel Barbour

In his hands, metal is artwork

(First published in Jewish Independent on April 18, 2008)

Fire burns in the furnace and in the heart of a local blacksmith.
OLGA LIVSHIN

The craft of a blacksmith is ancient. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus, the god of fire and metalworking, was the blacksmith of Olympus. Using a volcano as his forge, he produced metal artifacts and weaponry for the gods. Vulcan provided the same service for the Roman pantheon. The Book of Genesis mentions Tubal Cain as the first smith.

Miran Elbakyan, one of the best blacksmiths in British Columbia, is the modern heir to those legendary blacksmiths. Elbakyan's exhibit, The Art of Metal, opened April 10 at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.

As a gifted child, Elbakyan took lessons in painting and drawing in his native Erevan, the capital of Armenia. At 20, he immigrated to Israel. After serving his term in the army, he was at loose ends. He had his art education but no profession and no job. Fortunately for him, one of the top blacksmith-artisans in Israel, Andrey Kumanin, was looking for an assistant. The job didn't entail any artwork, but it was employment, so Elbakyan took it.

Fascinated with the expressive elasticity of metal, he realized right away that forging iron into beautiful shapes was what he was supposed to do. "I took to metalworking instantly," he recalled. His artistry and painter's training brought softness and subtlety to his ironwork. The three-year apprenticeship to Kumanin introduced him to the secrets of the craft of artistic forging.

Upon learning all he could from his mentor, Elbakyan struck out on his own, opening a studio and gallery in Kfar Vitkin in Israel. He soon made a name for himself, making all that could be made of wrought iron: customized fences, gates, sconces, candleholders, rails, grills, garden furniture, gazebos, fireplace accessories and metal sculptures. Using his own contemporary designs, he sometimes combined iron with glass, stone or wood. By the time he moved to Canada in 2006, his handiwork decorated hundreds of private homes, restaurants, wedding halls and hotels in Israel.

On his website, bcblacksmith. com, Elbakyan calls himself a blacksmith artist. The show at the Vancouver JCC is the artist's first solo exhibition, made up primarily of his sculptures. Created over the last two years in his studio in Surrey, they reflect the master's new, Canadian impressions.

A taciturn man, Elbakyan belongs to the doers, not the talkers. His art speaks for him, while he only shrugs when asked about the subconscious meanings of his pieces. "Anything can fire up my fantasy," he said. "Music, books, nature can push me to the drawing board."

He always draws his whimsical lines first, sometimes sketching for days before his vision becomes the final image. Only then does he go to his forge and work it in metal. "I lean towards surrealism and grotesque," he admitted with a smile, citing Salvador Dali as one of his strongest artistic influences.

"Making names for every sculpture was a real chore for me," he confessed. "I like abstract lines much better. A concrete image is boring. Besides, I don't want to limit people's imagination. Everyone can see in my sculptures something different."

Elbakyan's lines are always in motion, always striving to fly, to dance, to excel. His imagery is fluent and expressive. One of the biggest pieces of the exhibition, "Dance," looks like two ornamental lacy curtains, curled around each other in a sensual tango. The metal was made into elaborate filigree, transparent and delicate like two metres of iron tulle dancing in the wind.

"Urban Composition" resembles a maze of spiraling metal bar, like a labyrinth of highways in a big city. Three little cubes are lost in there, struggling to get out, like all of us, trying to make sense out of our hectic urban existence.

Despite Elbakyan's proclaimed dislike for the concrete, many of his sculptures are figurative metaphors, often conceptualizing emotions. "Horse" is roaring in defiance. "Ballerina" is tired and resting. "Sad Violinist" pours the gentle, lamenting notes of his melody over the viewers. Celebrating their freedom, the birds in "Flight" weave their aerial waltz around each other. "Mask" plays a cello, impersonating the mystery of music, while the idea of "Pregnancy," an intensely private composition, was sparked by his wife's pregnant silhouette.

Even Elbakyan's utilitarian, two-dimensional pieces conceal underlying emotional content. The strictly decorative "Firebird" is an arrogant seducer, aware of her irresistible allure, while the shape of his "Mirror" resembles a lush, curvy courtesan.

Everyone who attended the opening night left with the heightened mood and a smile. A master of iron and fire, a metalworker, a sculptor and a blacksmith, Elbakyan shares his inner light and beauty with anyone who comes in contact with his art.

The exhibit runs to May 11.

Making fine art from raw steel

Artisan trained as a blacksmith in Israel creates elegant metal sculptures
Michelle Hopkins, Richmond News
Published: Friday, March 14, 2008

Original Location

Wiping the sweat pouring down his brow, Miran Elbakyan pounds a piece of red-hot steel. Moving between his forge, anvils, tongs and hammers to work a white-hot rod of steel, he begins crafting, hammering, twisting, bending or chiseling. He then plunges it in water to cool it down.
View Larger Image
Blacksmith Miran Elbakyan works on one of his pieces that will be on display at his upcoming show at the Jewish Community Centre in Vancouver opening on April 10th.
Brett Beadle/Richmond News

Elbakyan is an artisan practicing the ancient art of blacksmithing — a trade that used to be handed down from generation to generation.
"No one in my family is a blacksmith, it was something that I fell in love with," he says. What evolves from his painstaking work are handcrafted one-of-a-kind forged wrought iron works and sculptures that this Armenian-born father of two breathes life into — they have fluidity, as if they are in perpetual motion.
His Iron Woman sculpture — a regal woman with a slight tilt to her head — is made of three pieces which Elbakyan welded together. Another piece (untitled) is a three-metre abstract sculpture that appears to be gently swaying in the wind.
It was while living in Israel for 15 years that he discovered steel, glass and wood. But it was wrought iron that captured his artistic passion.
"I originally was a painter in Armenia, but I trained as a blacksmith in Israel," says Elbakyan. "I trained under masters from Russia, Israel and Japan.
"I fell in love with the material because it offers lots of options to mold and create," he says.
Elbakyan, 36, immigrated to Canada in 2006 and soon opened a studio in Richmond.
Blacksmithing began with the Iron Age, when early man first began making tools from iron. It was thousands of years later before it became an art form.
For a while, it disappeared off the artistic radar but creative, handcrafted forging has made a comeback.
Elbakyan is riding the wave and his own art training didn't hurt, of course.
Elbakyan received his art education in the studios of Armenian artists.
Now, he forges naturalistic designs from steel bars in a choreographic dance that involves thought and physical activity — not to mention withstanding heats of 1, 000 to 1, 200 degrees Celsius.
"I sketch a design from ideas in my head and then I forge from a piece of steel that's between a quarter to two inches thick," he explains, adding he can spend hours on his original designs, depending on the intricacies of the piece.
Elbakyan gets inspiration from everyday life — an idea can be spun while he's driving, listening to music, walking in the woods or in parks and watching television.
"Everywhere I get ideas, it can even be another piece of art," he says.
He combines age-old methods and traditions with his own contemporary twist, to make them uniquely his. From his studio, he also makes fire screens, railings, gates, doors, tables and chairs, and other pieces of artistry from steel.
Much of his work adorns private homes in Israel, California and locally.
Elbakyan will be exhibiting 20 sculptures, as well as a couple of tables, in his show titled The Art of Metal at the Sidney and Gertrude Gallery. The show opens Thursday, April 10 and runs until May 11. The gallery is located in the Jewish Community Centre, 950 West 41 Ave., Vancouver. To find out more, visit www.bcblacksmith.com.

The Art of Metal

Sculpture by MIRAN ELBAKYAN