I too, create, write and paint. Art and writing allow me to reinterpret borders and identities. When I write/create, I am not limited to the set borders that define places and distinguish ‘us’ versus ‘them’. The realm of artistry is a liminal space, just like verants’ughi, where there is no prohibition, nothing is forbidden; hybridity and transnationalism dominate. This creative space is vague and undetermined, a constant state of transition, growth and transformation. Nation-states and political belonging have less significance than the present moment. When I am creating, there are no territories to demarcate my existence; all spaces are de-territorialised, and boundaries are blurred. In the world of creation, I can cross any lines – this is liberating, non-judgmental, transnational. In this empowering state of diasporic transnational hybridity, I can allow for authentic exchanges, crossings and entanglements, softening categorical boundaries between people, cultures, identities. This is where I negotiate differences in order to avoid conflict, the result of which is a profoundly hybridised world where boundaries are porous. My transnationalism in the realm of creativity provide me with moments when I can confront and problematise boundaries, although I cannot erase them. While this involves some degree of ambivalence regarding my social position where it becomes a source of cultural permeability and vulnerability, it is a necessary condition for living as someone in a constant state of verants’ughi.

The fields of psychology and medicine have amply documented that patients’ symptoms begin to drastically improve as they remember and speak about their trauma and emotions with a psychoanalyst. Talking about one's traumatic past has always been a useful tool for overcoming it – take, for instance, Holocaust survivors sharing their survival stories. For Iranian Armenian writers and artists in the diaspora, this healing space is found in what I call their ‘writing/showing cure’ – a space where they process through disordered memories of the past. Through their medium of storytelling and reflection on fragmented memories, these artists and authors centre themselves in their diasporic reality. In this chapter, I examine the ways in which Iranian Armenian writers and artists come to terms with their fragmented thoughts and memories through their creativity.