Texts

Eproject, wip, 2017-now

E-PROJECT is a work in progress that started in 2017. The humans in eproject are usually shown to be mindless consumers and they exist almost entirely in the digital world. They don't care about Earth and don't really seem to know much about it. They may be biological humans, but they don't use their minds for anything highly individual. They act like robots. Algorithms, already present everywhere in the digital realm, are reading us better than ourselves.

Social media are used as a space of presentation, where Gifs, objects, drawings, paintings, photographs, videos are connected with digital time and digital space.

references links :

for people in a hurry :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ePf9rue1Ao

'Stop Now and Think -Chaos', 2016, Eleni Chamou, Mixed media, 100 x 70 x 3 cm

Art usually reacts to the period in which is made, and to the problems and issues of that period. This work has many interpretations by placing emphasis on the socio-anthropological chaos. Nowadays that chaos is existing almost everywhere (for example in social media, diaspora, consumerism, capitalism, environmental problems, wars, etc) it seems that it is something that people either create and even control, or fear.

During this work I realized that if we learn how to change forms and values of our realities through Art, we can then change the world. But to begin with, it takes a mindset, not only a form to change the world, so maybe we have to 'STOP NOW AND THINK' and aim for that instead.

The Mixed media medium is created by an anti-structural concept ,which also helped me to create an experimental realism orientated to processes of composition.

References :

• Gardner, Dan. 2008. The Science Of Fear. New York: Dutton.

• On assemblages and geography Dialogues in Human Geography July 1, 2012 2: 171-189

• Realism, materialism, and the assemblage: Thinking psychologically with Manuel DeLanda Theory & Psychology December 17, 2015

SENSES - COLLECTIVE PROJECT

This project is based in two different meanings, that of 'collectivist' and 'individualist', which are used descriptively in anthropology and cultural psychology.

In collectivism, each person is encouraged to be an active participant in society, to do what is best for society as a whole rather than themselves. The rights of communities, and the collective take the place of those of the individual. There are rules, which promote unity and selflessness. Furthermore working with others and cooperating is the norm and everyone should support each other.

People should work and think as a community, family or nation more than as an individual. In Individualism, "I" is the key word for the creation of any identity. It promotes individual goals and achievement. Individual rights are seen as being the most important. In contrast with collectivism, rules attempt to ensure self-importance and selfishness.

In this specific project I created 6 stencil-drawings, represent 5 human senses and the brain. I truly believe that through senses, people can communicate and create a collective way of thinking and acting. Brain is the starting point for all the senses. So thinking for me is the 6th sense. Other people took my individual drawings and by making the outline, we created a collaborating drawing for each sense and a bigger one as a Final outcome.

A possible link to my work as a process is Maryclare Foa, an artist who demonstrated, depicted and described poetics of performance drawing Collective projects. In her projects, the audience usually followed instructions given by the speakers to create a collective performance drawing.

From reality to Poetry...to Mystery....to Dance !

Reference artists: Rene Magritte , Edgar Dega

The central idea of my work finds its routes to surrealism and more specific to Rene Magritte's works.As it is mentioned in the book "Magritte" by Jacques Meuris, "A painting must be poetry, and that poetry must evoke mystery." Those two key elements are really connected with Maggritte's work, especially in all those, which present the classic back of a Figure with a Hat. I will agree that the key to mystery thus lie to a certain extent in the imagination and in all that things, that feeds it, from memory to all the recollections which it awakens. In my work, I created a mixture of dream taken from reality.This reality, similar to Dega's perspective ,is connected to dance. Likewise I created a composition , using things that I know, in relation to the unknown. It is based on two figures of a Ballarina, who are interacting in a surrealistic environment.
The left figure is connected to reality and body existence , where the second one on the right is connected with the spiritual existence of the first figure, the "aura" as Benjamin Walter first named it. This "aura" gives to the figure a unique existence,which can change according to the imagination of each viewer.
The oil colours, based on the concept of dream, are vivid. It is a picture in which the subject takes up a big part of the surface against the background which is mixed with the foreground.
About the technique, the "real" figure and the red curtain are paper collage, referring to Rauschenberg ,who first merged the realms of kitsch and fine art, employing both traditional media and found objects within his "combines" by inserting appropriated photographs and urban detritus amidst standard wall paintings.** In my project I used more traditional media than found objects in my combination.
Back to surrealism, for this work, the existence of the work was an absolute necessity, if my idea was to be made visible.
The perception of the environment is influenced from the environment of the viewer, according to contemporary theories, such us that of Brian O'Doherty about the context, which became the concept. Accordingly, a dramatic - atmospheric environment is needed, in order my viewers empathy my experience of mystery through this creation.
Finally, I would like to ask my viewers:
"DO YOU [THEN] VALUE THE OUTWARD APPERANCE IN WHICH I CLOTHE MY PICTURES MORE GREATLY THAN THEIR MEANING?" (Jacques Meuris,"Magritte",Taschen,1998:112)

References
-Benjamin, W. (2015). The Work of Art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction. [online] Available at: HYPERLINK "https://www.marxists.org/refrence/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm" https://www.marxists.org/refrence/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm [Accessed 21 Jan. 2015].
-O'Doherty, B. (2014). Inside The White Cube. [online] Available at: HYPERLINK "https://monoskop.org/images/8/8e/ODoherty_Brian_Inside_the_White_Cube_The_Ideology_of_the_Gallery_Space.pdf" https://monoskop.org/images/8/8e/ODoherty_Brian_Inside_the_White_Cube_The_Ideology_of_the_Gallery_Space.pdf [Accessed 30 Nov. 2014].
-Meuris, J. (2004). René Magritte, 1898-1967. Köln: Taschen.