To Aleppo is a study for a life-size public monument. This triadic sculpture portrays three figures bound as a family and yet separate: a mother tending her fallen daughter while a younger daughter looks on. The piece is motivated by stories told to me by relatives, survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-16, and an historical photograph from that time (below).

As part of a broader campaign of genocide against the Armenian people, in 1915 Ottoman authorities ordered the elimination of Armenians throughout broad regions of Anatolia (present-day Turkey). Armenian men and teenage boys were separated from their families and massacred. The women and children were sent on forced marches into the desert.

As a sculptor and grandson of genocide survivors who lost most of their family members, I am moved to honor the lives and loss of the women and children who suffered starvation, dehydration, rape, and executions during the months-long death marches. My personal commitment and emotional understanding is grounded in stories from relatives who, as young girls with their mother, survived one such death march.

See also, Anahit and Arevik, two portraits made as studies for this memorial.