SAVAGE CHIC: A Fool's Chronicle of the Caucasus

by Kardash Onnig

In 2001, Kardash Onnig spent five intense months in war-torn Artsakh, as the young republic's first artist-in-residence from the Armenian Diaspora. While working and training young apprentices in the remote and impoverished town of Shushi, what Kardash found in the local human and natural landscape both enraged and riveted him. His impressions, recorded in a journal, form the foundation for this book.

Kardash's words are part philosophical reflection, part sociological critique and part artistic commentary. This book takes a sharp U-turn from any previous travelogue about Armenia and Artsakh. Brimming with unusual insight, Savage Chic is a powerful, often outrageous, and ultimately beautiful work on what it takes to transcend a glorified legacy of hatred and xenophobia, written by a sensitive observer who remains nobody's fool.