Untitled Document

"purple earth"

July - August 2001

At the Monastery of "Fyrogia" in Sifnos curator: Maria Marangou

group exhibition

The participation of Popi Krouska

At the Monastery of "Fyrogia"

Εxhibitions

Selection of works and applications

Curriculum vitae

Contact

DROUGHT – Let it be!

The subject of the exhibition is “Purple Earth”. The site is a monastery, a holy place of meditation. Summertime on a Cycladic island, with a powerful sense of the hot dry air and a real problem of drought.
So to me the ‘purple earth’ became the dry, thirsty soil of the island which has a reddish hue in the area of the monastery. But it is also the broader problem of lack of water in many parts of the planet. The problem of the senseless waste of water is what occupies my thoughts in the meditative atmosphere of the monastery.
The personal approach to the subject is sarcastic or mocking, in terms of both image and content. Should one ‘let it be’ or not? Should it happen or not? In this way I believe I am forcing the viewer to dwell a little longer on the word. It is not a piece of advice or an appeal. It is just one more thought.
It is expressed through images, in the small cell of the Monastery.
Dry earth with self-sticking material on the floor. Use of technology to create the image. Modern materials used widely in our daily life.
A large photo on the back wall, also digital, printed on canvas. It shows myself, almost life-size, with my back turned and a mysterious expression, something like an angel bearing a message. I am wearing a T-shirt with “Let it be!” printed on it.
A T-shirt because it is a symbol now. Al events, all firms are advertised or expressed through T-shirts. It is not simply a clothing item. It is a contemporary medium of expression.
A tape can be heard playing the sound of running water. Is it the memory of abundant water? Or a reminder of how it is wasted?

Popi Krouska
April 2001

At the workshop of Yannis Lembessis

LEMBESSIS POTTERY WORKSHOP

An old pottery workshop, with clear traces of usage and the passage of time. A setting that fascinates me, so much that I wish to intervene with one of my works. And when I start to think about this, I can add nothing to what is already in there. Yet I feel a strong challenge to do this.
Who am I to come and add something? And will I respect the special character of this workshop, or would I follow the same approach in a similar workshop anywhere in the world? Am I, possessing the secrets of contemporary art, coming to broaden the appeal of this functional space – to add a global dimension? And does it want it?
So on the blackened ceiling of the workshop, over the wood-burning kiln, I place a large round photograph of myself in a T-shirt which carries the word “globalising”, pointing at “Art” with a satirically divine gesture.
The giant picture is an everyday image in our culture; it is the adverts in the city. To me they are fascinating. The circular print on the ceiling contains ecclesiastic references and I believe dramatises the whole satirical venture.
So in the half-dark of the workshop a digital image which unconsciously references advertising comes to propose “Art”. These are two neon signs that spell ‘art’ in Greek and English, hanging from the ceiling. From my hand. It is I bringing my ‘lights’ into the workshop of Yannis Lembessis. With self-sarcasm and irony.

                                                        Popi Krouska
                                                             April 2001


Participating artists: Yannis Bouteas Lizzie Calligas Pantelis Chandris Arthur Crumlish Yorgos Gyparakis Harris Kontosphyris Popi Krouska Maria Loizidou Eleni Lyra Despina Meimaroglou Yiannis Michas Angelos Skourtis Dimitris Zouroudis


	"purple earth" May - June 2002 Rethymnon Centre for Contemporary Art

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English translations by Tony Moser