INTERVIEW: Eugenia Apostolou

Eugenia Apostolou, belongs to the artists who insist to abstract painting… opening the boundaries and reaching the absolute… Exactly where arises the transition… an intermediate space and time is created. Her new artwork series entitled “Apparations” that are on exhibition at the Ileana Tounta Gallery, come from the refolding-husking of the canvas through the multiple coats of paint, wherein revealed the flesh, the soul of the artwork…

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Eugenia’s Apostolou Archive

Mrs. Apostolou we see that the in the new series of artworks that are on exhibition from what necessity arises this?
The interior and the exterior are correlated in the works. The one defines the other. Through the almost surgical incision I perform on the painting surface I reveal its interior process.
These artworks have their own flesh that folds… unfolds and unravels… revealed to us on the surface of the canvas, causing surprises and starts, how is this achieved?
The paintings build up to a body (matter) onto which I interfere by destructing it. In the process of eliminating layers of paint incidents occur that I either try to control or accept till they lead me somewhere. I love being challenged by the element of surprise . I lead and I follow the painting simultaneously.
Simultaneously a dialogue with a series of monochromatic artworks is created, what this conversation means. What are the points of intersection and what are the points of deviation of the artworks between them?
My paintings have often been labeled monochrome to my disappointment. Their color includes tonal variations. Their vaguely monochrome mood is often negated by another color that comes through the background layers. The individual colors of the paintings create a chromatic dialogue in space . There is a color conversation within space so to speak.
You belong to the artists that throughout your course, you are using the red color with courage and boldness, here we see its chromatic shades extending to purple, what serves this restructuring?
I often return to colors I have used in the past. They have symbolic and emotional value. In that sense I am the color.
Inside the two series and the two sizes that you are using, you create through color and matiere, an intermediate space and time, which is sometimes visible and sometimes is implied.
In the process of disembodying the painting an in-between space appears that creates magic situations and introduces the absurd in the picture.
These artworks, balance between sculpture and painting, but remain painting and this is extremely important, have you thought to expand from the canvas in space?
I am space conscious upon conception of the work. The paintings evolve serially in space and have an instalational aspect. But I love that painting business, canvas and oil paint and to my view any ruptures, subversions and emerging new dimensions are more interesting when related to the canvas surface. Sometimes things get all the more heartbreaking when performed on canvas. Don’t forget that painting is the medium where the hand is directly connected to the eye and the mind. Nonetheless it is quite possible that fragments of my paintings might walk in space sometime .
The last artwork, I believe is in between, contains everything you have done and leads us in the future. This is between painting and sculpture, it’s seems pure sculpture on canvas, but is born-reborn and emerge through its flesh. Do you think to continue your work in this direction?
I will carry on in this direction as it is quite challenging for me. The painting you refer to is composed from the ruble of other paintings that have been shattered . It is a gesture of reconciliation with the notion of incessant flux, dislocation and redefinition of everything in this world. Nothing is what we only see, nothing stays in the same place. Thus a painting can become a sculpture and acquire a second life.

First Publication: www.dreamideamachine.com
© Interview – Efi Michalarou

Info: “Apparitions”, Ileana Tounta Gallery, 48 Armatolon-Klefton Str., Athens, Duration: 19/3-10/5/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri: 11:00-20:00, Sat: 12:00-16:00, www.art-tounta.gr