This October I have been undertaking a residency at Lucy Art residency in Kavala, developing an in-depth research on tobacco. This residency has generously been supported by LAR, the I-Portunus programme as well as by the Kavala’s Tobacco Museum.
The work I did during the residency includes a series of chlorophyll prints using images of worker’s hands in the processes of selecting, controlling and modifying nature to render it profitable, from the archives of Kavala’s Tobacco Museum.
I also worked with a newspaper from the 21st of April of 1967 (the coup d’état day from right-wing army officers in Greece and the beginning of the regime of the colonels) to reflect on the use of farming and nature to advance specific political agendas. The newspaper talks about the new regime and the new subventions farmers had access to. The military junta was initially mainly supported by farmers. I used the cyanotype process which is often seen as naive and organic, when it’s main legacy relates to photography’s early use to study, analyse, and rationalise nature.
During the residency, I visited a tobacco plantation where religious images seemed to be placed to protect the product. Being farming an extremely tough business where one might be at the mercy of outside forces such as market fluctuations or weather, I wasn’t surprised to see them. I decided to do a perfume with Kavala’s tobacco leaves on an edition of 33 bottles of 2ml to reflect on subjective appreciations of value and worth.
Below some images of the final pieces produced as well as of the production process.
I am very pleased to be selected for the Bow Open Show curated by Carey Young. Exhibition runs from September 27 to December 15.
- Opening Hours: Tue-Sun, 10am-5pm.
- Private View: Thursday, September 26 at 18:00
- Public talk: Saturday 28th of September.
Reed more on this link
This month I am running a cyanotype workshop at the South London Gallery. the workshop will take place at the SLG new Fire Station building which has a fantastic space for workshops. See more info on this link.
I am very happy to share that SPAIN arts & culture, the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in USA, will be covering my transport and accommodation expenses while I’ll be in NY benefiting from Penumbra Foundation professional development programme. Read more about SPAIN arts and culture and Penumbra Foundation by clicking on the links.
From the 6th of June until the 30th, my work will be on display with Golden Thread Gallery as part of Belfast Photo Festival. The exhibition includes works by London Alternative Photography collective artist, and goes with a public programme to which I contributed with a chlorophyll printing workshop.
The works on exhibition were produced in China in November 2018 thanks to a grant from Quad Derby, FORMAT Festival and the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. They reflect on my experience as an artist in residency at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, where as a foreigner not speaking Chinese and staying there for just a month, I could only access and understand fractions of the selective realities made available to me. In that context, I built a camera that could only expose 3mm fragments of film. I installed the works in a manner that reflects on the notions of access/barrier and that invites the viewers to visually scan the works as they move left to right, mimicking the way these negatives were exposed.
This series of disrupted landscapes, and sometimes abstract images, explores the limits of representability of identity within my own art practice. The series approaches non-figurative methods of depicting my (artist in residency) identity as a subject.
This month I received the thrilling news of being awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund project grant to allow the London Alternative Photography Collective, which I currently co-direct, run a series of exciting events!
This April I have had the pleasure to do a series of artist talks at the Science Museum presenting my practice and the chlorophyll printing process. The talks have been very popular with an estimated audience of +200 attendants !
This March I was approached by The Auction Collective to show the Piece Mariah Idrissi at Menier Gallery and participate in an auction. I was interviewed by their curator Francesca Wilson (you can read the interview on this link), and I was invited to present my work to a selected group of collectors.
This February I have been working with BBC Four on a commission for the Victorian Sensations documentary which will be launched in May at BBC Four and at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. On this occasion, I demonstrated my practice as a specialist on Victorian photographic techniques and did an interview with Philippa Perry.
BackThen, a new media outlet that works as part of In the NOW - a platform with over 3.3 million followers- also came to the studio to do a short documentary focusing on my practice, which will be launched on early April.
2019 has started with a fantastic course at National Portrait Gallery, as well as a day lecture at University for the Creative Arts and the regular wet collodion courses in my studio!
