The decision of what to exhibit at the degree show was taken from the beginning of the academic year. A project that was going to take me the whole third year to complete. A piece that will demonstrate my ideas and development throughout my course.
This idea was conceived from a visit to the Leventis Gallery in Nicosia where I saw for the first time the monumental painting of Cypriot artist Adamantios Diamantis. The striking size and subject of that piece were so overwhelming that inspired me to want to try and create something special like that.
Artworks like “Emissaries” of Lisa’s Reihana, “The world of Cyprus when they first hear the bad news”of Adamantios Diamantis, Cristina Troufa were also inspirations for the way I was painting and developing the piece. The images depicted had to be personal and meaningful so I used photographs and videos of my family and Cypriot landscape.
The second part of this project is how to exhibit it in order to betray the concept of the piece in the best possible way. I ‘ve studied artists that make panoramic artworks and looked carefully at how they choose to exhibit them. I want to display it not only to be visual correct and appealing but conceptually and practically. That’s how I ended up to the idea I am developing at the moment to display it on a cylindrical structure. A structure that will not allow the viewer to see the whole painting at once; like the way, I was working and he will need to walk around it to experience the whole piece; one scene at a time.
Richard Serra’s huge round installations are one example of the artists that inspired me to choose this way of exhibiting. I love the way people have to walk around in order to see and feel the vastness of the pieces.
Richard Serra, Rounds: Equal Weight, Unequal Mesure, New York, 2016
Adamantios Diamantis, The World of Cyprus, 1967-1972
Claude Monet, Musee de l’Orangerie, Paris, Water Lilies (Nymphéas)
The common aspects that all these artworks have in common are that are not in a simple display. They occupy the space, surrounding the viewer and draw his interest to walk him around to experience the piece. Making him feel part of it and affecting the environment there are in.
Sketches and maquette designing and planning the structure of the piece.
Michalis Theodosiou 