V V V V Vasiliki
In this text I will discuss a sample of my work : "Fold and unfold", "Is not there", "Mushrooms" and "Pantone Green". All are concerned with time as a material; what things become through physical interaction, memory and the structure of the organism itself.
“Fold and unfold”
“Fold and unfold” is an event that is composed by two actions that take place in parallel space and time. All of its objects are a cross between sculpture and drawing, a two dimension surface that becomes and three dimension and vice versa. In “Fold and Unfold” the viewer is invited into the space to participate by observing, hearing, seeing, and acting.
Several sentences that are written in different parts of the space invite the viewer to experiment with the fleeces and occupy the space as he desires. At the start the fleeces are folded and placed on a table. Five fleeces of different sizes and different texture or softness in variations of white, grey and black have geometric shapes drawn on them. Some drawings are made with a silkscreen technique and others with mechanical embroidery. The drawings depict an impossible space; they are optical illusions in which the foreground and the background of the object shift place. They keep their material essence as objects and the gesture of drawing is also apparent. Folding and unfolding is an ordinary action that creates gestures – it can be experienced as a gentle conversation or even as an obsession for order. There are ways to fold something according to your intentions: as private monologue or as create a space between people. There is something mystical in it like in a silent conversation; the action of folding is often part of rituals, traditions and ceremonies.
A woman in a red cotton dress sits on a chair near the table but not next to it. She has a pile of shells and porcelain, clay or plaster objects of the same shape on her lap. She slowly starts building a line from her lap to her chin with these, while the objects build up and fall down as she assembles them. The sound of the objects is creating a common soundtrack for both actions in the space. The performer could engage with the audience or not. The duration of the action is on the decision of the performer.
Both of the action could exist independently and simultaneously. This piece is in constant flux, and the viewer becomes the performer, the performer becomes an object, the object becomes the initiator of the action and vice versa. Time covers every action in the space and determines the mood of the participants. The activation of the possible gestures changes the rhythm and the intensity of the situation.
“Is not there”
“Is not there” is a wall piece comprising six objects and a text, the text is written below or beside of the object's arrangement. Similar territory is explored with this piece as well. In the same way that one is dealing with impossible drawings in “Fold and Unfold”, there is something unresolved about the reading and form of “Is not there". Both encounter the space between the viewers, the work and the maker.
During my first days in Holland, I had heightened awareness of the Dutch light. It was then obvious why people painted the way they did during the time of the Dutch Golden Age. The text speaks of an experience, and memory, of an incident that took place in a Dutch market where I saw six objects on a table. These objects triggered memories of a Dutch painting, the kind of painting in which mundane objects are commonly placed along with an ideal scenery. When I started to look for the particular paintings I realized that they didn’t exist, I had constructed the paintings in my remembrance. The piece arose from a collage of different memories. It’s like a dream, where you add up all the different memories to make a new story. The viewer is invited to follow a series of events with his/her mind, that seems to have a cinematic narrative.
Could the materiality of six objects in a certain environment trigger a memory flash back and could they themselves become makers of a new experience? The composition of the piece changes every time it is showed; the first time the text was printed out in a small size in A4 format and played the role of the title. The second time the text was hand written on the wall in one and a half lines (total length 4m), the reader could read the text only of he/she moved in the space. The six objects were glued on the wall, in a “kanoniki”, arrangement, two rows of three, the rows were exactly one on top of each other. The objects had the same distance in between them. Another time all the piece was inside a rectangle of light, the six objects where at the top and the text was once again hand written but in a centered alignment with the objects, this time the reader would have to stand still and close to the work to read, sometimes he/she would block the light and interfere with the visibility of the text, hindering themselves and others. Every single situation brought up a different hierarchy of the work's elements as well as a less or more personalised connection with the author. It seems impossible to decide their final hierarchy without the space that they will be in. The desire for the reader's position in the space formulates the final presentation of its elements. In all the cases the readers seemed to be drawn to the text and not walk away from it. The shift between the elements' roles, create a different mode for understanding, its materiality – memory, gesture, storytelling, involvement of the reader – the found objects worked as primers for the experience and the verisimilitude of the story in all the cases. It makes me wonder about the possible spaces that the work could inhabit. What would be the case of involving a digital space or a different participation of the reader?
Both pieces, although conceived separately, relate to each other because they both play with our sense of everyday experience. In both cases the work is the initiative factor for interacting with space and participants. Their scale and final format is always in alliance with the space. Even though their scale could change, the objects used are remaining the size of human scaled objects; something someone could move in space literally or not. It is never small enough to hide in your pocket and not so big that it could be unmanageable.
Mushrooms
"Time seems to have an impact at objects that is not observed in the everyday notion. A common state is observed between objects and organisms that leads to the transformation of matter. In this understanding time may finally be perceived as an object as well, as part of the same equation. Maybe the limits of describing entities or reality is somewhere between the meaning of space / world / self / others / possibility / matter / function / meaning / time.” ("Process Philosophy” online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Time seems to only effect the form/status of the mushrooms, but not their existence. They keep on being. Their process continues independently as they go through different stages. I grew mushrooms in my studio on different logs. What was interesting was their material properties and observing the way the funguses grew and found their form. A fungus is a large organism -an endless network- that is growing in the dark by taking over big areas even though its size is not always apparent.
"Mushrooms" consist of a log in a cube made out of plexiglas and its documentation of the different stages. A non - sequential archive of images that show the different stages is projected in the same room as the logs of mushrooms. Each side of he cube is of 51x51cm, only one side has a 12 cm gap at the bottom. The specific opening was necessary for creating the proper humidity conditions for the fungus to grow and for a possible suggestion/invitation to engage.
The ideal form of the cube transforms a natural object to a treasure object. The cube creates a distance between the viewer and the mushrooms and puts the first one in the position of observing the object in a similar experience we have in a museum. The ideal conditions for presenting the object, is interrupted as much as from the form of the mushrooms and their the continuous transformation, as well as from the side opening that implies the possibility of engagement of the viewer with the object.
“Thus contemporary process philosophy not only holds out the promise of an integrated metaphysics that can join our common sense and scientific images of the world. It is also of interest as a platform upon which to build an intercultural philosophy and to facilitate interdisciplinary research on global knowledge representation”, “Philosophers analyse becoming and what is occurring as well as ways of occurring. (Process Philosophy” online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
“Pantone Green”
Pantone Green”
“In the wake of this study a plea is made for a new definition of nature: nature is the environment in which you live and nowadays, for many people that means the city.” (Club Donny, issue 10, “It’s the user, stupid!”, Kristen Algera) "There's this huge gap between reality and its possible representations. And that gap is impossible to close. So as artists, we must try different strategies for representation. ... The process of identification is fundamental to create empathy, to create solidarity, to create intellectual involvement." “I am hoping that this combination of creativity and ephemeral existence will perhaps help define the importance of contemporary art in our lives.” Alfredo Jaar (http://www.globalimaginarydia.org/index.php/2013/02/the-skoghall-kkonsthall-2000/)
Pantone green is an action that is performed by a group of people. Several gestures are suggested - cutting, hanging, composing, and discussing - in order to decorate a corner of a room. The elements that could be used are three logs, printed images of plants, some soil, plants in pots, clay and some wooden constructions. A script/score/invitation for completing the work is given to the visitors. All the scripts/scores/invitations contain different drawings of the space, and inform you about the possible positions of the elements.
In the corner: a pencil drawing of a grid, a cut log mounted on the wall. The adjacent wall has a window that allows you to see outside. All the materials and the tools are on the floor. The pictures are printed in an A4 format with a white frame around them, which should be cut for them to fit in the grid. In order to hang the pictures, black needles are available. The images are photographs of plants in an urban or domestic environment. They are placed horizontally on the wall even though their theme does not always have a horizontal format. Due to this distortion the themes were not easily recognizable and in the end they all became a wall paper/painting rather than an accurate representation of the outside. An irregular square is drawn with soil on the floor. The cylindrical porcelain pieces became extensions of the log’s branches. A reversed wooden planter operates as resting case for tools, plants and other materials. Several plants in pots are in the space and could be placed in many possible positions. A piece of clay could be used as base for something. No documentation of the action is left in the space for the future visitors; the only evidence of their actions is a photograph of the space with a date that was completed as well as the sample of the instructions that were used.
A workshop? A sculpture? An installation? Maybe a performance? All the previous mentioned terms have a specific context and require several conditions in order to be completed. With no intention to challenge these terms but driven from curiosity, I invite the visitors to help me complete a possible script/score/invitation of inhabiting a given space. The outcome could vary, according to the decisions of the participants as well as from the local materials. Participating myself in the new conditions that the dynamic of the group will create, exploring from a new perspective the possible outcome of the script/score/invitation..
Materials/ Tools: Wood, paper, porcelain, soil, scissors, needles, a window, clay, a silicon gun, scissors, pencil, soil, paper tape, hammer, glass, nails, and ruler.
Dimensions: Variable
Recently, I was thinking of the ocean. What is it? Is it part of the environment?is it the home to all the creatures that live in it it? Is it the substance that determines the borders of the land? Does it has time or is included in it? What could possible i be its shape?are its edges evident? What is its color and chemical substance? How do I know what it is ? And in the end is that the question i should be asking?
What If the object is not the centre of my quest but what if the initial point are my questions?would that made them an object? Where does it places me and the one that takes/receives them?Where does the work starts to exist? Does it exist in the links between the participants? Does someone has the lead or is it a choreography between the object, the viewers, the maker/initiator? Perhaps it operates as vivant tableau, that roles shift and different aspects are presented each time.
Is it all about the process of questioning?
Bibliography
Process Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/process-philosophy/ Future Contingents http://plato.stanford.edu/future-contingents
Identity time, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-time/
Manuel De Landa, DeLanda's lecture pon morphogenesis and art http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HSMTUZ64bY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_De_Landa
Jane Benet, Artistry and Agency in a World of Vibrant Matter | The New School https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q607Ni23QjA&list=FLPOr9wdse7F-brw85alMjBg&index=7Armey Benet:
Augustine through the ages, An encyclopedia , general editor Allan D. Fitzgerald, O.S.A, foreword by Jaroslav Pelekan, paragraph 3, p.835
Hans Haacke, “Condensation Cube”, begun 1965, completed 2008, Plexiglas, water, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Haacke
Ricardo Basbaum, “Would you like to participate n an artistic experience?”, 1997 still going., http://www.nbp.pro.br/
Allan Kaprow, "Assemblage, enviroments, & happenings"
Ricardo Basbaum, http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/v2n2/basbaum.htm
Giannis Ritsos, "Selected Poems 1938-1988", edited and translated by Kimoen Frisar and Kostas Myrsiadis
Gertrude Stein, "Three live and tender buttons"
Giorgio Agamben, "The sacrament of language, an archeology of the oath." Translates by Adam Kotsko
Different urban gardens in the Netherlands, France, London and Greece.
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Ecclesiastes 3