|
OLYMPIA POLYMENI -
TAΣΣEOGRAΦY
Sartorial Contemporary Art is delighted to
present an installation by Olympia Polymeni in her debut UK solo
show
April 6th - April 29th, Private View: Wednesday April 6th, 7 -
9pm
.
. . . . . ... ..... ..  .
. .. . .
. . Cycladic Torso 2010. Ink on
paper, 35 x 27cm . .. .. . . . . The Elephant Woman 2010.Gloss on paper, 137 x102cm......... .. . . .. . . Torso I 2010. Acrlic on
paper, 59 x 42cm .........
Polymeni’s work takes an unusual twist on the over-used motif of the
female identity, explored through the metaphor of tasseography, or the art of
fortune-telling by patterns of ground coffee on the surface of a white cup, that
is still widely practiced in her native Greece. Polymeni has created a series of
paintings and sculptures evocative of curvy female outlines as though formed by
leftover coffee.
The traditional reading of the female body would have it reduced
to the womb, a black hole leading to decay and death, irrational like fortune
telling or like Polymeni’s uncannily disjointed bodies. Lumpy
blacknesses acquire a presence of their own, as the texture of paint and
sculptures of wax trigger off an intensely organic response, making the
fragments of female bodies seem accidental and insignificant, as though they
could have taken any other
shape.
Polymeni interrogates and subverts the traditional notion of
femininity reduced to confinement and “womanly” pastimes like
“telling the coffee” in the afternoon just to while away the time.
Not without irony, identity is represented as tragically dissipated with no hope
to ever be whole again, constructed and refashioned over and over again by
social norms and preconceptions. The female body eventually becomes a scene for
political, social and existential statements.
Olympia Polymeni was born in Preveza, Greece in 1975. After
graduating in philosophy, she studied painting at Athens School of Fine Arts and
moved to London in 2009 to pursue her studies, earning an MA in Fine Art from
Central St. Martins College in 2010. She lives and works in East London.
|
2010 Sartorial Contemporary Art
View
message
Comment on this
message
Receive as
RSS
del.icio.us
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
