Sculptures are some of the most exciting art works to look at and analyse, and apparently, they are also quite fun to make too.
Memnia Tziakoura is an artist that works only with metals to create vivid images that can bring out different interpretations from each individual who sees them. Her exhibition ‘Routes’, now open at the Gallery Kypriaki Gonia, has been describes as featuring ‘manifestations of representative picturesqueness, rhythm, harmony, and dramatic expression in an integration of living music. In a masterly fashion the artist opens the avenues of psychic elevation through which her art springs out majestically’ by Dr. Panos C. Afxentiou. Perhaps this is because she is able to take cold and lifeless metal and breathe vibrant life into it, or perhaps it is because each piece in her exhibition has its own identity and meaning… Whatever the reason, the fact remains that her works are all alive and unique.
Tziakoura works with anything from pipes to just plain aluminum, even if it is garbage. In fact, she says that the idea of taking something that is unwanted and insensate and giving life to it is her very inspiration, despite the fact that she has injured her self many times in the dangerous process. The process Tziakoura uses to make her art work is particularly dangerous in that she only uses her hands to shape and mold her art and will not use glue or welding. She insists that in this way she can exact the image that she wants and that the process is much more genuine that way. She works alone and says that she will never work with wood or stone.
In addition to choosing difficult materials to work with, Tziakoura does not sketch or pre-formulate her desired art works. She says that if she were asked to do that, she would probably end up with a sculpture that was nothing like she had planned. She thinks of the message she wants to get across, visits old places where metals have been thrown away, and chooses pipes and other materials that she thinks would bring this idea into the viewer’s consciousness. Even with this difficult way of planning, she rarely does a piece twice, and believes that this is due to her profession in architecture and engineering. Regardless of why she is able to do this, this process gives her work a feeling of fluidity and continuity.
The message Tziakoura attempts to bring out often varies, but as she says herself, she tries to get the viewer to see ‘things that they don’t notice in their everyday life or, to be more precise, things they actually see in their everyday life but pass them by without noticing or paying any attention to them. Looking at them now from another perspective-my own eyes-they realise how mistaken they were for passing them by indifferently’.
In the past, she has tried to teach her viewers to notice the little and seemingly unimportant things in life by getting them to contemplate subjects such as human nature, romance, logic versus feelings, the function of the body as the temple and home of the soul, oppression, and loss. For example, in her fist exhibition, titled ‘candlelight’, she used candles and their effect on the shiny surface of metal to exhibit the beauty of human nature and romance, something that we do not often appreciate in our day to day lives. In ‘When the hands and the body talk, another significant exhibition which has received much praise, she used the human body, namely the hands, to express how important the body and soul really are. She does this through creating striking poses for her sculptures, where they almost look as if they are moving and coming to life.
According to Anthi Savvidou-Petsa, this particular exhibition attempts to highlight Tziakoura’s trip in the ‘world of emotions, created by natural and man made environments’. She recreates these emotions through striking images. For example, in her piece titled ‘Agora’, she tries to show the movement and images she sees when looking at the local market. She uses this market as a means to showing how humans are too concerned with money and spending and saving it, and uses outstretched hands to display this greediness. She does also this in ‘Polikatastima’(mall), where she shows that we are too concerned with material belongings. In other works, such as ‘Tsifteteli’, she simply creates human-like sculptures that display artistic movement and more positive feelings that arise from different activities, such as dance. Also eminent in exhibiting her trip in the world of feelings is the use of the words ‘mana’(mom) and ‘metera’(mother). She uses ‘metera’ to describe the tender relationship between mother and child, while ‘mana’ is used when referring to mother earth; both of which are subjects that exact acute sentiments and influenced Tziakoura in her emotional route.
Tziakoura looks forward to exhibiting her works in Belgium, after this exhibition, and hopes that her hands will continue to be strong and graceful in the art process so that she can continue working with her great love for metallic sculptures. ‘Routes’ shows her development as an artist, and the different paths she took in the artistic world.
Routes
Metal works by Memnia Tziakoura. January 31- February 12. At Gallery Kypriaki Gonia, 45 Stadiou str., Larnaca. Monday- Saturday: 10am-1pm 4.30pm-8.30pm. Thursday: 4.30pm-8.30pm. Tel: 24-621109
Pics to use:
Tsifteteli, ergast23, Polikatastima, agora, xoros
