Rebellious Slave #7, 2012
Mix-media collage, 13x19”, unique
Projected larger format: approx. 42x61” (work in progress), unique (with 2 variations)
Slaves & Titans explores timeless concepts inherent to the human condition, such as the intersection between the spiritual and the profane, through the magnification of the human figure. The title alludes to the paradoxical aspect of our human condition, caught in a struggle between the ideas of surviving and transcending a pre-determined existence, and the possibility of altering its course and finding oneself. Similarly, I see the fragmented and distorted body as a metaphor for our dislocated and uncertain existence, in perpetual search for equilibrium and stability.
I’ve always been drawn to water, and it has been central to my work, both as a subject matter and more recently as a medium for I’ve used the element and its reflective and distortive qualities as a second lens (see Poolscapes and the videos Light Drawings and State of Flux). I also see water as a vehicle for transformation and self-reflection and I think that water speaks to the senses. The notion of sensuality and gesture, especially when it touches to the human figure, is another important aspect of my work. The flesh and its color, immersed in water and distorted, is a way to magnify the body and to give it a shine and brilliance, like a precious fabric one would like to touch and caress. But the blur also creates a feeling of alienation for the distorted body seems to float in the ether or slip away into the depth of water and almost vanish. The body then becomes unattainable. I like to question this tension between the desired and unreachable. The human figure, immersed and distorted by the element of water, begins to echo dissolutions and shifting states of mind. Formally, I am also interested in the tension between representation and its deconstruction and the blurring boundary between the human figure and space when the body merges with the landscape to become an “abstract field” of form and color.
The works of Francis Bacon and Michelangelo particularly resonated to me when I started to work on Slaves & Titans, and I decided to re-appropriate Michelangelo’s sculpture and title The Rebellious Slave for a series of collages of the same name. In the series of unique prints Slaves I have experimented with darkroom techniques to further alter the representation of the figure and the surface of the image itself, calling to mind notions of instability and anxiety.
Rebellious Slave #4 and 5, 2012
Mix-media collage, 13x19”, unique
Projected larger format: approx. 42x61” (work in progress), unique (with 2 variations)
Rebellious Slave #6, 2012
Mix-media collage, 13x19”, unique
Projected larger format: approx. 42x61” (work in progress), unique (with 2 variations)
Rebellious Slave #1, 2012
Mix-media collage, 13x19”, unique
Projected larger format: approx. 42x61” (work in progress), unique (with 2 variations)
Rebellious Slave #2, 2012
Mix-media collage, 13x19”, unique
Projected larger format: approx. 42x61” (work in progress), unique (with 2 variations)
Rebellious Slave #3, 2012
Mix-media collage, 13x19”, unique
Projected larger format: approx. 42x61” (work in progress), unique (with 2 variations)
Diptych (Broken Mirror), 2014
Diptych (The Scream), 2014
Triptych II (The Scream), 2014
Triptych I, 2014
Broken Mirror, 2014
Inferno (2010), SIngle-channel video, 01:47, looped, edition of 3 (+2 AP)
Link to the video: https://vimeo.com/37210060
Inferno was inspired by my obsession with water, light, and body gesture. It was conceived as a “moving fresco” exploring concepts of duality inherent to the human condition and perception such as the friction between the real and the imaginary, the sublime and the mundane, and the tension between the desired and the unreachable.
Inferno was premiered at Art Basel Miami 2010 and was featured in 2011 at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Peter Marino Architect Gallery and the Big Screen in New York City.
Inferno - Installation view of the exhibition Voyeur at Art Basel Miami Beach (2010), organized by The Young Patrons Circle of American Friends of the Louvre and XXXX Magazine.
Curators: Anne Huntington, Indira Cesarine and Konstantinos Menelaou