Soft Power, 2025

The object Soft Power consists of eight Chinese towels with traditional designs. There is irony in this work, but also bitterness. Imperialism has cast aside the benevolent mask of "soft power" and now operates exclusively through the methods of brute force.

The work reminds us that tensions in the contemporary world continue to escalate, while military conflicts are becoming increasingly dangerous, making even the use of nuclear weapons a real possibility. New technologies deployed on the battlefield, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also contribute to this danger. War is becoming a duel between automated machines.

Technology is dehumanizing because it reduces language to a sequence of operations subordinated to the external purpose of technological production. The most appropriate name for this sequence is information—the language of the technological age.

— Vardan Jaloyan