Greek artist Amalia Charikiopoulou is inspired by the raw beauty of nature and the influence of the human memory. The video above is a short yet stunning portrait of a remote island in Greece, and a recent digital printmaking project incorporated a Greek floral pattern from her grandmother’s tea cup which she repeated and layered until it was abstracted beyond recognition.
I love the gentleness of your short video filmed on Amorgos Island, Greece, during your residency there this year.
I am happy that the video Subtle and Strong attracted you. The video is a documentation of the beauty that subtly encloses in margins of the land, the architecture, the human activity and the culture. It is my humble effort to record these slight narratives of a grand beauty and the reverse.
I like how you describe the raw natural beauty of the place presenting a sort of poetry. How has the landscape, especially of Greece, been an influence in your work?
Since I was a child I have been amazed by the scapes that are surrounded by the Aegean Sea- both landscapes and seascapes. The epitome of the Aegean Beauty is in Cyclades and in particular Amorgos Island. Amorgos is wild and otherworldly. The mountainous land with the steep cliffs, the vast grand blue waters and the clouds or the fog create a mystical surrounding that constantly changes shapes and creates illusion effects. Both water and land are in subtle or rapid motion I have been taken by the feeling of being in Amorgos and looking at the views. I come in contact with a force a material and a state of being that is “beyond the grid” as Rosalind Kraus has expanded on describing artworks after Modernism.
You also work in other media, such as printmaking.
I have been using materials and exploring their materiality because I look closely their operation and particularly the operation of the forms- the effluence. As part of the process i have been combining mediums and exploring techniques. This is how I adopted and became curious in printmaking. Whether using silkscreen or digital printing, I find them both organic. Also I use both techniquesas a structure, an organization an engineering process. In addition I have liked decorative arts and by exploring the above I can think of the essence of decorative and fine art.
What is your studio like?
In Greece I work at home or at any available site. I have been passionate about art making and the discourse of art, which is why I decided to implement the Wilderness_ AMORGOS Art Residency.
Do you have any upcoming exhibitions or projects?
I am planning an exhibition in Athens with the outcomes of the artist in Greece. I apply for residencies and jobs, and I plan to make a blog where I will discuss issues of art and interview artists.
Find more at camaliacharikiopulu.com!
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