Short interview

I was recently contacted by gazette inspiration collector (a lovely arty blog) and was asked to answer a few questions about things I like (I tried to find a better phrase but 'things I like' seems to sum up what I want to say) and my work. I enjoyed answering these inspiration related questions which sort of reminded me of why my work ends up looking the way it does. Some times the work just develops automatically and remembering the reasons why I work using this style and ideas was quite reassuring. Anyway you can visit the beautifully designed gazette blog here and read the short interview here. 

Cyprus Archaeological Museum visit

The only image that stayed with me since my last visit to the Cyprus Archaeological museum is a room full of clay figures of varying sizes. Even though I was around eight years old when I saw these figures I was amazed by how many sculptures there were in that room. So yesterday I decided after so many years to visit the museum again and experience the room again!


I discovered that there are only one hundred sculptures in that room out of the two thousand found in the excavation...there is simply no space to put them so some of them were taken in Sweden (they were discovered by Swedish archaeologists). 


I also enjoyed the naive and amusing pot drawings and there was something really scary about the life sized sculptures. The whole experience was inspiring and the fact that people have been making art for so long is fascinating! 

Vishnu the Preserver

I admire religious / spiritual art mainly because of its symbolic nature. I particularly like Hindu images and Indian miniature painting because of their rich color and naive use of perspective. So after I read this bit (well some of it) on Wikipedia about Vishnu while brainstorming for an animation I started this drawing of Vishnu which is sort of my own version of him. So here are a few fascinating bits about Vishnu's iconographic representation (there are a lot of different interpretations of these elements so if you are interested in learning about them it's best if you do your own research rather than take my writing for granted): 

His skin is 'like water filled clouds' and he has four arms which symbolise the four aims of life: pleasure, success, righteousness and liberation. In his hands he is holding a Sudarshana chakra (upper left hand) which represents the will to multiply and also that he is the protector of the heavens. He is also holding a shell (Sancha) symbolising prosperity and a trident  which is a sign of asceticism. Vishnu is standing on a pink lotus in bloom because according to esoteric Buddhism the heart of a being is like an unopened lotus and when the virtues of the Buddha develop the lotus blossoms. The pink lotus is also a symbol of the highest deities. There are countless names and representations of Vishnu and the list of characteristics and symbols is endless so I will probably draw him again in the future!

AntiVJ

AntiVJ is a visual label working with projected light and messing with people's minds! My friend Costas was telling me how unique their work is the other day and I finally had a look on their website which made me want to move away from the traditional rectangular screen. You can see more of their work here.

Setting up Re Aphrodite

So yesterday it was setting up day for Re Aphrodite exhibition and even though it was extremely hot (my mum's car thermometer temperature reading was 44C!) it went pretty smoothly. The only thing I had to do was take Lady Alchymia to the museum and say whether it looked ok at the end when the museum officials and guards put it in the display. There was a lot of waiting around since we had to get permission to open the cabinet and certain people had to be present since it is full of expensive historic jewellery.

 I've never seen my work exhibited in this way and I'm still a bit unsure as to whether I like it or not. The exhibition organisers wanted the artists to work with the museum's artefacts and they really liked the idea of exhibiting the piece in this way. I guess I haven't really seen my work exhibited in a museum cabinet before! Ideally I would prefer to have it framed on that amazing textured wall but we are not allowed to drill any holes - interfere with the wall.

The opening is on the 4th of July so feel free to come if you are in Nicosia!

Re Aphrodite exhibition

I've been asked to take part in a rather unique exhibition in Cyprus which I'm excited about! The main reason is the space.  I sort of had an idea of what it looked like since it is a historic building and I went there with school (primary school so as you can imagine that was not very recent) but today I visited the place again and was very impressed.

The building used to be the house of a Christian-Othoman dragoman in the 18th century and is now a museum. There are numerous historic exhibits in the museum and new contemporary pieces by Cypriot artists will be created and exhibited alongside. I'm really pleased I got chosen to take part and look forward to seeing my work exhibited in such a beautiful historic building.

The idea was that some artists were going create pieces based on the building's history but unfortunately I did not have the chance to do that since I was away so I'm exhibiting Lady Alchymia.
One of the many amazing features of the house is that there is a secret passage which sort of looks like a wardrobe (it even has some steps that lead outside) which is the place from there the dragoman actually escaped from when he was chased by .... I forgot who but anyway in the end they found him somewhere in Turkey and decapitated him. He was not the nicest person though so...

Cat on a plane

I apologise for the lack of posts...I had quite a lot to do in the last week and now I can finally relax a bit! Transporting my cat from England to Cyprus proved out to be a mission, it was a very stressful experience and I honestly do not recommend it to anybody. He is still hiding under the bed now and comes out to explore the room every now and then.
I finally managed to move out of my house and studio in Brighton and have a couple of days to rest now at last!