Monday, July 22, 2013

Athena Petra Tasiopoulos



I was immediately struck when I saw Athena Petra Tasiopoulos' hypnotizing work. The images brought to mind a victorian photo collage exhibit I saw at the Met in 2010 called, "Playing with Pictures". This connection to the history of women in photography, and the beautiful combinations of photographs and drawing makes Athena's work especially powerful to me. 

Athena Petra Tasiopoulos is a mixed media artist & photographer. Originally from Philadelphia, she currently resides in Montpelier, Vermont. 

View more of her work here 



Statement 


I create altered realities from found photographs; second hand images that contain a glimpse of our shared humanity and beg to be examined and explored. My imagination is continuously lured by the mystery of these forgotten artifacts. The unsettling knowledge that most of my subjects are no longer living creates a heavy finality in their expressions and gestures. They possess a sad quietness, beautifully captured in an interesting sort of limbo—simultaneously trapped and saved. I find myself feeling compassion for them, an obligation to free them. By stripping my subject of her superfluous identity and alleviating her from the constraints of time and place, I aim to give her a voice. Process: My works are mixed media composites from found imagery, reminiscent of traditional collage technique. Scanned cabinet card and carte de visite portraits of women are my subjects. The digital composite serves as the skeleton of my piece. My prints are then hand embellished with graphite, watercolor, acrylic and gold. I am intrigued with primitive mark making and evidence of the artist’s hand.


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