I see your face in mine
I keep a photograph,
it burns my wall with time..
(Christopher Garrett)
Christianna Economou’s work over
the past years, is haunted by the notion of death and the traces it leaves in
peoples’ lives; memory, abandonment, loss, the past and old traditions, form
the basis of her own research and analysis through her work. She creates mixed
media installations where she often seeks to memorialize the anonymous as well
as those who have disappeared. Economou’s pieces reflect the qualities of their
source; visually and technically exciting, texturally appealing, nostalgic and
tactile. They are as much about technique as what transpires while she is
creating them: “I think about time, as well as loss, mortality, layering and
information. Old, abandoned, disappearing objects that people seem to
undervalue and spaces that have been marginalized, fascinate me. They hold a
great attraction for me through their humble and collective history and sense
of humanity”.
Through her creations, Economou
is aspiring to form new relationships, experimenting with unexpected
combinations of materials creating objects and environments, which encourage us
to see the past and our history with fresh eyes. By applying abstraction and
figuration, she creates intense personal moments mixing historical information,
text and image affected by the aspect of time and focusing on the presence of a
profound absence. Her practice revolves around things that
stimulate a sense of curiosity. This has been her journey as an artist, an
observer of her own culture.
“I find it easier to describe
thoughts than feelings, easier to describe despair than joy. For these reasons,
writing sometimes gives a false impression: there is not enough exultation in
it. This is why I express myself through art. My aspiration when I make a work
is to raise questions and to let the viewers answer them in their personal
approach. To me, the unclear statement of a piece, the doubts and the questions
are what is keeping artworks alive; they keep on challenging, reflecting
readers’ perspectives”. By applying a poetic and often metaphorical language,
she wants to amplify the astonishment of the spectator by creating compositions
or settings that generate tranquil poetic images that leave traces and balances
on the edge of recognition.
