On Sunday, October 11, 15 performers gathered in downtown Los Angeles donning white robes with images of rifles printed on them. The stark visual was recorded by onlookers and the group itself, so that it could appear on the screens of people around the world amidst the pandemic.

The performance art piece, “The Rifles Our Ancestors Didn’t Have,” was organized by She Loves Collective, which was founded in 2017 and is, in their own words, “an alliance of female artists who share a strong belief in the power of creating social change through art.” Co-founded by Adrineh Baghdassarian and Nelly Achkhen Sarkissian, She Loves Collective chose the performance to reflect on the war in the Armenian-populated Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (aka Artsakh), where Azerbaijani military, with the help of Turkey and Syrian Islamist fighters, ignited a continuing war after a September 27 attack. The lives of tens of thousands of people are being threatened daily by the fight. Hyperallergic previously reported about the threat the war poses on the archaeological heritage of the region, which includes important ancient and early Christian sites. READ MORE