The individual works from Melik Ohanian’s photo series Selected Recordings (SR) are numbered and thus give no information as to their origins. They are topographically difficult to categorise and have an effect as if they would come from a no-man’s land between fantasy and reality.

In this respect SR #003 is different and shows a sea map in landscape format affixed to a wall. Considered from the basic idea of cartography as the depiction of the surface of the earth in the most objective way, it is an obviously factual element that leaves little play for improvisation. But nevertheless the coloured balloons – the remains of a lively party – awaken a feeling of yearning in the viewer. Knowing that the artist found the motif in Iceland but that the depicted group of islands is, however, in the Banda Sea (part of Indonesia) it becomes clear that the idea of discovering new worlds, the myths of seafarers and exotic islands or the exploration of the unknown belong to the universal longings of human beings.

Heike Maier, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)