In his essay on Proust, Beckett mentions that men and women in the works of the French author seem to solicit a pure subject, so that they may pass from a state of blind will to a state of representation.
In his essay on Proust, Beckett mentions that men and women in the works of the French author seem to solicit a pure subject, so that they may pass from a state of blind will to a state of representation. In his new exhibition in Crux Gallery, Nikos Papadopoulos presents a series of erotic works which relate to his own life. The figures in these works are the pure subjects – lovers/partners –, who are the protagonists, despite baffling the greedy gaze, in a never-ending silent festive condition. The viewers are invited to bypass the dazzle/magic of the technique as well as the artist’s fixating on details, be they in reference to objects or body parts, in order to discern them.
The title of the exhibition emerged from the twofold meaning of the words pole|hole|ball, pointing to the semantic play that takes place between certain geometrical forms and parts of the male body.
For the artist, beyond the need/urge to expose his work, his desire to expose also himself presupposes the acceptance of his choices as part of his identity. The publication of personal experience and erotic choice constitutes also a political act, one of freedom and audacity, in a world that is socially divided, aesthetically homogenised and, despite seemingly tolerant, more and more hypocritically conservative.
The visual output emerged from the gathering of a selection of personal moments, captured with the artist’s camera, which were consequently turned into drawings, raised or incused, with the use of a novel material.
With this line of works, Nikos Papadopoulos further extends the familiar technique of dot-painting (the synthesis of an image through dots) since, besides paper, he also uses aluminum foil to produce works that are sensitive yet durable, with volume and a difference in texture. The demanding procedure he follows, one which strains his hands, is a reference equally to the raised metallic surfaces and to the byzantine technique of anthivolos, which has as a result the development of different techniques and different versions of the same drawing.
Katerina Koskina
Art historian
