NEW ARTWORKS: Rania Rangou

This column, is hosting new artworks, of younger and older artists who either are on exhibition this days or had recently been exhibited, in order to grope together with the artists all the aspects of their work. In a terrifying difficult era, Rania Rangou calls us to redefine in the basic principles that comprise soul and mind, on the occasion of philosophy, through paintings that traveling us in space and time and standing upright, clean and lucid against any form without gimmicks and falsified appearances… at the a.antontonopoulou.art.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Rania Rangou Archive

Mrs. Ragou, to what degree you are working boustrophedon*, in your work, it time and how as a human?
As far as my work is concerned I frequently return to previous works of mine, realizing that regardless any evolution in the way of writing, my targets and the themes I choose to deal with are not far from each other. One does what one is. Therefore, our work inevitably follows parallel tracks to those we walk in life. In our every day we walk down a path, run a routine and at the end of the day we make a conscious or even subconscious assessment of what the day has been about while we build the next morning’s objectives and further out plans. Even this routine continuity resembles to a boustrophedon move.
From what of your needs arises in an era where technology seems to have moved away from “Art, Poetry and Philosophy”, as said Jean-Paul Sartre, the return to philosophy?
Both philoshophy and technology form part of my life. Technology is the our road to the future while philosophy is the guiding finger, the compass showing the way. Philosophy, especially during unstable periods as nowadays, offers to me direction and support. The more my questions about political and social issues the more the answers and explanations I find walking through the paths of my quest in philosophy which is an outcome of study and observation, which incorporates science in statistics, physics and more. My work is like a visual calendar in which I write of what I actually live and what I ideally dream. This, for me is a art painter. I don’t serve any predetermined plan. I let my subconscious be drifted freely boustrophedon in time. This is how I choose and underscore the themes that interest me more.
Your artworks although they are clean canvas painting without visual hints, as your writing contains truth and purity, However the selection and the composition of the subjects creates three-dimensional images of the future, how do you achieve this?
The boundary of targets and imagination is where one sets it to be. In this exhibition I was interested in the traditional use of painting, in the purity of plain painting. My drafts though were made using various applications and electronic tools. The bet was to reproduce with traditional means what was made electronically. It is a game, which keeps me far from being bored, embracing the discipline of a traditional painter and the surprise of contemporary tools.
While you use almost the same colors (with emphasis on the blue and white) and you experience your canvas with tremendous discipline and strictness, however, we observe that there is an artwork that is spontaneous and gestural, but also two small collages.
The abstract work, which lies in isolation from the rest of the exhibition, is the theory of chaos, as I call it. It is the project, which came to be through an emphasis of gesture. It was my break and relief from the disciplined and precise other projects of the exhibition. While working on this one, I was giving myself the time I needed, the breathing space to review in a clear eye the main part of the exhibition, to clarify things that were bothering me. I could call it a sideline, but in any case it is precious to me while it is fundamental element to my illustrated theory. The collages consist integral part of the exhibition. While I show only two, purely due to setting up constraints, both reflect the central concept viewed from a different angle.
The canvas is an exercise of discipline for you?
In the specific exhibition, yes. It is a form of meditation, in which one works uncomplainingly without one loses one’s focus and track. In other words, with the specific work I entered a debate, into a fight with my usual stance vis a vis painting, which is quicker, more direct and aggressive. During the last two years my atelier became my island, my mystique place and the more I stepped into this world of discipline the more I was looking for this quietness and seclusion.
What represent the collage, for you and why do you make them? Although they seem unconnected with your paintings, if someone take a closer look at your work, there is a common thread that runs through, since all contain a collage or images or messages.
The notion of the palimpsest is always present in my work. This has been a universal axis in my work since the times I was still a student. Boustrophedon movement forms a palimpsest if one visualizes this course from a position where one civilization touches another, conveying the new together with elements from the past. Collages are the quickest way to express the things I want while they embody my perspective. Collages represent a fast, free form of art which includes a dynamic and a convenience that both fit well with my idiosyncrasy.
Finally, what is common sense, solution, redemption or obstacle?
In view of the fact that common sense refers to “groups of likes”, it is a solution for those that can impose it and an obstacle for the rest that have to live with it.

* An ancient method of writing in which the lines are inscribed alternately from right to left and from left to right.

Info: “boustrophedon@commonsense.raniarangou”, a.antonopoulou.art, 20 Aristophanous Str., Athens, Duration: 3/4-16/5/15, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri: 14:00-20:00, Sat: 12:00-16:00, www.aaart.gr