Thursday 3 September 2009

MA FINAL SHOW




For my MA show i created a mixed medium installation inside a white cubic room. It was a combination of drawing, painting, collage and assemblage. During the year of my MA studies i experimented with several concepts and materials. Like in other occasions things started to connect when i viewed the space that i would build my final show. The physicality of the room triggered my intuition and my experimentation met organically in a site-specific installation.

Sculpture made of wet clay, expanding foam, rubber, latex, varnish, acrylics. Dimensions variable.








Painting - Drawing on the wall detail made of colored pencils, acrylics, colored markers.



Sculpture made of latex, plaster, fibre, acrylics.

LOVE WILL TEAR US APART, detail from collage. Magazine pictures glued in torn canvas, photos printed from the internet, acrylics, colored pencils, pastels.




MA STUDIES / BODY WITHOUT ORGANS


My work hovers between sculpture, drawing and painting, and it often developes into a mixed media installation that playfully interacts with the space as a picture plain. It blurs the edges between objects and their environment. Depending on the space provided i can exhibit these pieces seperately or -more often- by combining them in mixed medium installations.


In 2009 i created several collages and assemblages.The basic and guttural element of collage in combination with it's quick and urgent nature provided me with the tools i needed in order to investigate violence and deconstruction.


During my MA studies i was influenced by the concept of Body without Organs by Deleuze and Guattari. D&G believe that the human organism is posessed by infinite energy and that sexuality is a flux power circulating the body. Deleuze's analysis speaks about a possibility of a new extended organism that moves beyond the boundaries of the real body, beyond the boundaries of skin. The inside blends with the outside and the organs change places or disappear. A new body landscape is created from the start.

UNDEFINE ARTS / OCTOBER 2008


UNDEFINE ARTS INVITATION

















When i was living in Greece i was assistant professor in Vakalo College of Arts and Design. Being a visual artist who was teaching designers, I came up with the idea of a collaborative project: Seven Graphic Design graduates of Vakalo College and seven Fine Arts graduates of Athens University of Fine Arts would investigate for a time period the relationship between Fine and Applied Arts through discussions and personal work. This research would result an exhibition in Vakalo's premises. I curated and organized the project in collaboration with art theoritician George Vlahos.

The 14 artists met several times during the summer of 2008 discussing the connections and the differences between applied and fine arts. The works that were produced, as well as the catalogue of the exhibition were made collaboratively and were the result of the team's  research on the subject.



 





















I presented 3 pieces, an old one and 2 new. Gossip magazines and pornography were my main influences. I wanted the pieces to ooze the lavish charm and cruelty of these popular cultures. In my collage and sculptures i appropriated images taken from gossip/ pop magazines addressing the relationship between graphic design and Fine Arts and also between "high" and low culture. With this work i also continued my research on female transgressive sexuality.


Expanding foam, acrylics, glossy enamel, pins, photo cropped from gossip magazine.


General view

Photos taken from gossip magazines, the internet, tape, pins and cardboard.


UNDEFINE ARTS - opening




ANGELS OF VATHIS


One and a half year after Kipseli's exhibition my work had become more sculptural and i had began to work with collage.
Me and 3 other female artists, were invited by curator and artist Antony Vathis to create a piece in his apartment - a process that resulted an exhibition. Each of as occupied a room and worked for a week. The results were 2 wall paintings, 1 performance
and 1 sculpture.

I concider my sculpture a reaction to both the concept of the exhibition and to the room itself. Conceptually i created something referential to feminity as an answer to the title of the exhibition and the exclusive participation of female artists. The room was full of books and magazines which i organised like football arena seats. I placed the sculpture on a wall opposite the "seats".























The sculpture was made with expanding foam, acrylic paint, varnish, pins and photos.This piece is significant to me because it was the starting point for my research on issues that i investigated for the next years like sexuality, biology and body boundaries.


KIPSELI'S MARKET EXHIBITION


In January of 2007 i was asked to participate in a group show that took place in the Old Kipseli's Market, by curator Stella Andrioti. The market was about to be demolished for a shopping mall to replace it. Various art events were held at the time within it's premises as means of protest against the demolishion plan. The market was sustained by small equal sized cubical rooms that were traditionaly used by fishermen and butchers.


 

View of the room before the installation
Inside view of the market before the exhibition

ZAIMI 1 APARTMENT / DECEMBER 2006


A few months after my final BA show i was asked to participate to a group exhibition that took place in a vacant apartment in the center of Athens by curators Elina and Dora Theodoropoulou. Every artist had his own room in the apartment where he was asked to develop a piece over a period of 2 weeks. I created a mixed-medium, site-specific installation investigating the relationship between freedom and incarceration.


Painting, drawing, collage, ready-mades.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

BA FINAL SHOW / JUNE 2006


The first years of my BA studies i was occupied with issues of non figurative painting on canvas which i gradually began tranfering on cardboard boxes and other worthless form materials. This change had a huge impact on my drawing which became more instinctive and it also directed me to think on issues of space and volume.

The last 2 years of my studies i was experimenting with many mediums ,creating pieces that seemed diversed and unconnected. All these different actions became an entity in my final thesis. It was a sculptural installation in the form of labirynth chambers that combined painting, photography, drawing, video and collage.

Since then, I have evolved and tuned this practice, focusing and developing a language that has reoccurred and in my work. While I am in my studio I experiment with various techniques-concepts, creating unconnected pieces. It all becomes clear to me when I view the space in which I will exhibit. Space dictates my solution as it triggers my intuition.

BA FINAL SHOW / JUNE 2006 / DETAILS






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BA FINAL SHOW / JUNE 2006









BA FINAL SHOW / JUNE 2006