sandra kontos

sandra kontos
Odes;

the issues the artist is mainly concerned with are life, death, gender and sexuality. in this suite of photographic works, Odes; the artist reminisces about what felix gonzalez-torres once said, ”’my work is all my personal history… i can’t separate my art from my life.’” in addition, there is a layer of what freud spoke of when he wrote that we rehearse our fears in order to lessen them. the artist uses autobiographical events and memories that run curiously parallel with themes conceived from various sources. in Odes; love mingles with the death of love.

memory and remembrance were pivotal to conceptualising Odes; but perhaps just as crucial and entering the work from the same place is the fear of forgetting. memories are transmuted and replaced with metaphors. often only a small thread remains of the initial source, because occasionally, thus is the nature of memory. the formal structure of Odes; is based on the songs of sappho and twentieth century critiques of female specificity. the pictorial language was developed from greek mythology, artists of influence and various literary sources.