STAR
Exhibition STAR 2012
Cironis’ work addresses identity and memory and how we link it to notions of place, tradition, culture and customs. Her own personal history as a migrant informs her investigations of how cultures are defined, misinterpreted, subjugated and assimilated. A lack of understanding of the idiosyncrasies of cultural conventions leads to a dilution of meaning, a simplistic parody of a society.
The language of symbols across cultures suggests a profound human instinct for shared forms of meaning. If carpets can be understood as a product of an oral tradition and a medium of cultural expression, Take it All must then also be part of the decorative lexicon but rather than of ancient origins, it makes reference to contemporary reality.
While the carpet is light, sparsely decorative the words are red, bold, striking and commanding. The words are one response to an infinite number of situations. While at first reading there seems to be a sense of surrender in the work, Take it All can be both an act of submission or one of intimidation in equal measure. The winner generally takes it all, but to take it all is an impossible task.
Take it all questions our place in the world for what is all? Provocative or even ironic, the words imply a fight is over, relinquishing. You may indeed take it but will you know what to do with it all? Will you be burdened by it all, do you deserve it all or at all? And how will taking it all affect your world. The suggestion is that knowledge without the benefit of history and context has a short life span. Our search for knowledge is in essence humanity’s search for identity; Cironis questions the psychology of human interaction and our need to conform to rules and conventions which in themselves are fraught with misconceptions and elusive, intangible boundaries, our need to command and conquer without understanding consequences.
What we can understand of our shared existence from a distance, if we do not engage and make a commitment to explore its fundamental nature, is not dissimilar to understanding the heavens by taking a glimpse at the night sky, we may get a sense of it, but we will miss the phenomenon of what it truly is. (Anselmi 2012)
Cironis’ work addresses identity and memory and how we link it to notions of place, tradition, culture and customs. Her own personal history as a migrant informs her investigations of how cultures are defined, misinterpreted, subjugated and assimilated. A lack of understanding of the idiosyncrasies of cultural conventions leads to a dilution of meaning, a simplistic parody of a society.
The language of symbols across cultures suggests a profound human instinct for shared forms of meaning. If carpets can be understood as a product of an oral tradition and a medium of cultural expression, Take it All must then also be part of the decorative lexicon but rather than of ancient origins, it makes reference to contemporary reality.
While the carpet is light, sparsely decorative the words are red, bold, striking and commanding. The words are one response to an infinite number of situations. While at first reading there seems to be a sense of surrender in the work, Take it All can be both an act of submission or one of intimidation in equal measure. The winner generally takes it all, but to take it all is an impossible task.
Take it all questions our place in the world for what is all? Provocative or even ironic, the words imply a fight is over, relinquishing. You may indeed take it but will you know what to do with it all? Will you be burdened by it all, do you deserve it all or at all? And how will taking it all affect your world. The suggestion is that knowledge without the benefit of history and context has a short life span. Our search for knowledge is in essence humanity’s search for identity; Cironis questions the psychology of human interaction and our need to conform to rules and conventions which in themselves are fraught with misconceptions and elusive, intangible boundaries, our need to command and conquer without understanding consequences.
What we can understand of our shared existence from a distance, if we do not engage and make a commitment to explore its fundamental nature, is not dissimilar to understanding the heavens by taking a glimpse at the night sky, we may get a sense of it, but we will miss the phenomenon of what it truly is. (Anselmi 2012)