For me, art is a way of living in this world with more hope and optimism; and therefore, in an era as dystopian as the one we are experiencing today, I consider it more necessary than ever.
I grew up in Greece under a condition of internal relocation, moving every six months from the capital (Athens) to the island (Crete) and back again. This circumstance created many limitations for me, but at the same time it cultivated strong adaptive abilities. I believe that a large part of my sensitivity toward issues of migration and displacement is rooted in this way of life, while my contact with people from all over the world strengthened my anti-racist beliefs and taught me to view the world with a cosmopolitan, open perspective.
In my artistic practice, the idea dictates the medium, and thus it expands into painting, sculpture, Land Art, and poetry, exploring themes that revolve around the relationship between humans and nature. The list of materials I work with, beyond the traditional ones such as paper, canvas, pastels, and acrylics for painting, or plaster, clay, and resins for sculpture, is continually enriched with unconventional materials, both natural and artificial: seaweed, salt, fabric, metallic threads, metal sheets, and more.
Thematically, I focus on the human condition through the lens of forced or voluntary movement, on the fundamental need of humans to belong to the land and, conversely, for the land to belong to them; and on how transformation becomes essential for adaptation, survival, and acceptance by others. My rock-relief works function as precious fragments of memory: living witnesses of events, traces of geology that shapes characteristics and mindsets. I perceive them as primordial landscape-frames within which I envision the human figure transforming, adopting elements of nature, animal limbs, and so forth, in an effort to empower and redefine the self and its existence. At times, the body itself transforms; at others, it wears a “garment” that suggests an animalistic origin and materiality.
In my work, already since my degree show at art school, the element of clothing and accessory reappears periodically; a feature that perhaps connects me to my grandmother, who was a seamstress, but also to the artificial world, a human creation, which fascinates me in the way we shape our figure to express who we are and where we belong.
ld.alexopoulou@gmail.com +306934034929