CRITICAL NOTES AND REVIEWS
Iro Nikopoulou
(Astrolavos-Dexameni, Oct. 2-19, 1996)
In Iro Nikopoulou's work, be it painting or installation, the counterpoints of concept and material, and the presence of time seen in the traces it leaves or the processes it demands, form the basic axes upon which she articulates her enterprise.
In relation to her previous series, the paintings recently shown at Astrolavos are a continuation and closer examination of the above concerns, and although their physical presence within the space has dwindled, their semantic content has expanded.
The new collage element one encounters here is the recollection of the experience of the earlier installations - a clear allusion to an intended physical and semantic extension of the two-dimensional picture plane, while the often minimal presence of the media functions as an instant record or trace of the event. At the same time, the sense of the materials' perpetual life and, conversely, their ephemeral and perishable existence, constitute two different faces/versions, simultaneously manifest in the same composition.
Nikopoulou poses questions, implies conditions, and obliges the viewer to participate in a quest for the answer, taking responsibility for his/her interpretive investment.
Vicky Karaiskou