The Weight of Tenderness
Video, 2025
About the artwork
To cradle what should not be cradled, to carry absurdity as if it were sacred, this is the silent theatre of love and loss. Between tenderness and ridicule, devotion and burden, the gesture becomes holy. Love is always like this: too heavy to hold, too precious to release, always trembling between presence and absence. The fish is no longer a fish but a mirror, showing the fear of losing what we cannot live without, and the strange intimacy of carrying it anyway.
AI generated music and sound design by Hrant Khachatryan
Audio explanation
Listen to Hrant Khachatryan discuss this work.
Hrant is an artist from Yerevan, Armenia, where their grandmother played a significant role in their upbringing. From the age of 5, they were encouraged to pursue computer engineering. Despite this, they followed their passion for art. After high school, they enrolled in the Armenian Academy of Fine Arts to nurture their creative talent.
Photography captivated them from a young age, leading them to pursue it professionally after graduating from the academy. Initially working as a designer, they soon found their true calling in photography. For seven years, they immersed themselves in photojournalism, capturing diverse aspects of life in Armenia, from political events to cultural happenings.
Craving artistic freedom, they embarked on a freelance career. Around the end of 2022, their curiosity about AI grew due to its widespread discussion. Initially skeptical, they gradually saw its potential for creativity and self-expression. Discovering Midjourney sparked a new chapter in their artistic journey.
At first, they explored AI for entertainment but soon realized its capacity as a tool for realizing their creative visions. They used it to visualize distinctive people of the '80s-'90s in Armenia, imagine events like fashion weeks in different cities of Armenia, and bring to life their son's imaginative stories. Delving deeper, they began visualizing their fears, memories, and dreams.
For the past half-year or more, they have been dedicated to a significant project, capturing their visions. This project holds immense personal importance to them and represents the culmination of their artistic exploration and growth. In 2024, this work became part of the group show Post Photographic Perspectives III: Taming The Machine by Fellowship, curated by Alejandro Cartagena and Niceaunties. Their collection of 100 pieces sold out in just 40 minutes, and one work from the series was later printed in Prompt Magazine.
They continue to create with AI, developing more personal projects in both still images and video — exploring themes of memory, identity, transformation, and Armenian culture through a blend of surrealism, emotional truth, and cinematic storytelling.