"All my pretty ones"
solo show at a.antonopoulou.art gallery, Athens (GR)
text by Evita Tsokanta, historian of art
30 April to 14 June 2014
installation views (click on each image to enlarge)
press release
“All
my pretty ones “
Nana Sachini presents her solo show entitled “All my pretty ones” at
a.antonopoulou.art gallery on Wednesday,
April 30th at 19.00-22.00 .
As if the body, in its outer appearance,
is that kind of virginity that anytime and with any touch is penetrated.
Kostis Papagiorgis
The exhibition features sculptures, sculptural
installations, prints and drawings.
Heterogeneous materials, such as copper, soaps, satin fabrics, film strips,
reeds, insulating materials and others are composed, constructed and developed
through ritual and improvisational gestures with a wide range of associations
and references such as Peter’s Sloterdijk philosophical book “Bubbles”, Greek
folk tradition and mythology.
Through continuous tension and negotiation the works examine delicate moments
of uncertainty and the struggle of the “I-body/you-body/it-body/the
Other-body”.
In the artist's words, they become the potential material for:
"…a fragmentary narrative of the inside having in mind that for me telling
stories means that I have “touched” them beforehand. In Greek language the word
narration is “afi-gisi” and the word
touch is “afi”. However the one word
has no relation with the other. It’s just an arbitrary association that means a
lot to me as a sculptor”.
The
title of the exhibition is from Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" and a
poem of Anne Sexton. Although in both cases it has to do with the loss of
beloved people (the children of Macbeth’s rival and the poetess’ father
respectively), here it is appropriated with an oblique glance. The beauty and
intimacy according to the artist, presuppose a look inwards. This “inside” is
often precarious, perishable, violent and repulsive, full of odd sensations.
But what if the being-together-out-there is in a constant negotiation with the
conditions of the “inside” and their in between communication/relationship? An
effort that hidden inside to be de-demonized or as the title says “All my
pretty ones”.
The artist says:
“Through the works emerge questions about whether there is any inherent vice of
making spheres, for the moment that we throw away the ladder and we swing in
the air. How it is to dwell in bags, to be entangled in knots, to be against
tubes and passages, to stand in front of permeable walls. The works try to imagine/recall
data from our first sensations, our first games.
...And the sculpture-body to be seen in terms
such as physical contact, touch, cling, detachment, expansion, contraction,
surface, insulation.The main hypothesis remains the intimacy of roundness”.
works "All my pretty ones"
Wood, plaster, stucco,
varnish, copper, satin, magnetic tape. 165X123cm
Canvas, stucco, colour, print
on canvas (performance photos), magnetic tape, wood. 180X160X140cm
“let no one enter who is unwilling to
refute loneliness”, 2014.
“east when it’s clear, west when it’s cloudy”, 2014.
Red marble, satin,
velvet, expanding foam, phone cable. 168X100X28cm
“a brickwall describes itself: yoni prayer”, 2014.
Unfired clay, copper, shrink wrap, varnish. 40X65X10cm
“stigmata:water
souvenirs”, 2014.
“breathing in the margins”, 2014.
Polystyrene, burlap(sacking), string. 160X70X30cm
“what do
rabbits do: pink suits you well”,
2014.
Copper, air cushion bubble wrap, phone cable, satin, wax,
expanding foam. 120X110X40cm
“throwing
away the ladder”, 2014.
Brass,
prints on flag textile (scanned body, objects), satin, bamboo sticks, cement,
soap , brass wire, thread. 240X196X120cm
“the intimacy of roundness”,
2014.
Copper,
garden hose, velvet pillow. 60X44X46cm
“the
eternal silence of infinite spaces: bubbles”, 2014.
Copper, soap, expanding foam, wood, cement, colour. 110X42X42cm
“collection of unfinished houses”, 2013.
Bamboo sticks, silicone, glitter, lamp, cement, plaster,
rubber, mirror, colour. 107X155X125cm
“body
houses bodies”, 2014.
Plaster, cardboard, bubble wrap, plastic cable, x-rays, rag, food
colour. 150X 55X55cm
“who knows
what the “and” stands for: story of an acrobat”, 2014.
Papier-mache, colour, chickenwire, performance photos, cement,
plastic cable. 240X100X80cm
“veils create nudity”, 2013.
Print on flag textile (scanned body, objects), brass wire, bamboo
stick.119Χ86cm
Drawing
Process, 2014.
Marker and coloured pencils on paper. 74X103cm
“voice says voices”,
2013.
Watercolour
and ink on Indian handmade paper. 80X100cm
