Book Talk with Sato Moughalian: Feast of Ashes

Join Armenian-American researcher, Sato Moughalian, for a voyage into the birth of the Armenian ceramic tradition in Jerusalem.

Along the cobbled streets and golden walls of Jerusalem, brilliantly glazed tiles catch the light and call the eye. These iconic features of the Holy City are Armenian ceramics. Silently, these works of ceramic art represent a riveting story of resilience and survival.

In 1919, David Ohannessian founded the art of Armenian ceramics in Jerusalem, where his work and that of his followers are now celebrated as local treasures. Born in an isolated Anatolian mountain village, Ohannessian mastered a centuries-old art form in Kütahya, witnessed the rise of violent nationalism in the Ottoman Empire, endured arrest and deportation in the Armenian Genocide, founded a new tradition in Palestine, and spent his final years, uprooted once again, in Cairo and Beirut.

Ms. Moughalian will detail the lineage of her grandfather David Ohannessian’s ceramic tradition. She will speak about the process of understanding her family’s past, the impetus to excavate and reconstruct her grandfather’s history through archival research, and the importance of preserving the stories of people displaced through war and migration.