2o Diversity Art Festival- Famagusta Gate

On the 22-26 April I was part of an exhibition with non-Cypriot artists living in Cyprus, Point- Elenio Project and the rest of my classmates from the University of Nicosia. The space was big and the work was dispersed around the building in an organised and formal manner. It was lovely to see the diversity within every artists' work.

Here is the work I presented:

Some works from other students:

Identity Loss

With the rise of technology and social media, we gradually start loosing our identity. We are capable of having more identities than one, as we can be anyone we want to be online. Thus we loose our individuality and human contact becomes less. I used my own face to demonstrate this. I started by removing the eyes, then the nose, then mouth, until the face is completely gone.
The photograph was taken by my tutor, Haris Pelapaissiotis, at The University of Nicosia.

Loneliness

We often get caught up in our daily lives and forget to give some time to ourselves. We become lost within our jobs, obligations, responsibilities. We become isolated. We become apathetic.We forget old memories and people we once knew.

I found these pieces of furniture thrown in the field opposite my university and I decided to photographe them. I felt that these images reflect the message I am trying to put across. They have been thrown away and forgotten just as we tend to forget ourselves.

Touch The Earth

We were given a photography project at university where we had to pick a title at random in which we had to work on and interpret it in our own way. The terms were that it had to be one image and it had to be a portrait. My title was ''Touch The Earth''. I used inspiration by artists such as Ines Rehberger, Minori and Brendan Monroe.
Through this work, I wanted to show that we should be one with Earth, that we must protect it and nurture it. I wanted to make the photos look as raw and natural as possible.
Model: Stella Violari

Here is the final result:

Alternative:

Other shots I liked:

Point Centre for Contemporary Art, Nicosia

On the 2nd of April, I went to an exhibition at Point Centre for Contemporary Art, Nicosia, entitled ''Stories From The Lives of My Friends'' by Christodoulos Panayiotou.
For this exhibition, Christodoulos was inspired by Chekhov's work that had remained unfinished. Christodoulos aims to develop beyond what is enounced, just as Chekhov's writing is expressed in pauses and inbetween lines.
In his series of works associations and intimate dialogues are implied rather than exposed. I like the fact that he uses traditional and historical aspects from Cyprus in his work. For example, his large mosaic and gold paintings using the same technique in orthodox religious icons.

Apothiki 79 Art Gallery

On March 14, I visited an exhibition at Apothiki 79 Gallery in Larnaka entitled, ''Little Boats are sailing as ships are sinking'' (5-18 March 2015) by Elizabeth Hoak- Doering.
It was an interesting and thought provoking exhibition. The work was thoughtfully and carefully placed. My favourite piece was the boat, which was made of pegs. It was very impressive, well calculated and thought out.
I also liked the paintings/drawings. They were very delicate and fragile. They were painted with white paint on glass, consisting of a red background. They were reproductions of symbols on a catholic cathedral wall.
It was also a pleasure to be able to talk to the artist and receive insight as to what the work was about. I found the title to be very clever as we do indeed involve ourselves with tiny problems when there are much bigger ones out there.

Treasure Island- Municipal Arts Centre Nicosia

I have recently started an MA degree in Digital Art & Design in the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. Last month, as part of our course we went to the Municipal Arts Centre to assist some younger students with their projects. All the students were in groups of threes and fours working on different topics. Their aim was to expand discourses of the past in Cyprus, recreate or intervene on something that was already there. They did this through performance, installation, painting and film.The group I had to work with dealt with the theme of prostitution. They dressed up a mannequin in provocative clothing and makeup and put her in a field where old whore houses used to be and filmed reactions of people passing by. Some people just passed by unfazed, some stared, some laughed, some even asked questions. So there was a variety of reactions. I helped by advising the students on where to place the camera and gave some of my opinions on what could be improved. Some of these houses were still working. They were very brave to take on such a project, as it was very controversial.