UGLY THINGS IN RENTAL APARTMENTS
oil pastel, pencil, 2026

Upon arriving in Armenia, the search for temporary housing becomes an initial form of engagement with the city. Apartment viewings shift from a practical necessity into a mode of observing private life in Yerevan.
The interiors register everyday ways of living, aesthetic preferences, and spatial organization of their former inhabitants. The zine by artists Dasha Simpatishno and Blue Pencil brings together the most striking details of apartments available for rent in Yerevan in January 2026
Each location is documented through a single object or composition:
× A glass dolphin-shaped table placed in the center of a brown room.
× A group of two to three chairs arranged around a bed. A recurring motif across many of the viewed apartments. Their function remains ambiguous, as if the bedroom anticipates an additional observer.
× A bookcase filled with books and icons, conspicuously locked with a bicycle lock.
× A brazier with an open flame, built in the middle of a kitchen on the fifth floor of a Stalin-era building.
× A glass table with a massive base, creating an optical illusion of inversion. The object requires visual effort to confirm its stability.
× A bright red children’s toy car placed in the living room next to a sofa, facing the television.
× A bust of an unknown woman on a freestanding column, hidden behind a door.
Made on
Tilda