Vicky Pericleous - Nowhere and Elsewhere

Omikron Gallery is delighted to announce Vicky Pericleous’ solo exhibition Nowhere and Elsewhere.

Nowhere and Elsewhere is a paraphrasing of Jean-Luc Godard’s and Anna-Marie Miéville’s 1976 film Here and Elsewhere, in an attempt to create a bridge between these spatial notions, as well as examine notions of temporality; both of which the exhibition is focused on. The artist employs archival material from her photographs taken from all over Cyprus, collage, drawing, re-painted surfaces and sound to reconstruct environments that appear familiar, yet distant. In the series Chronicles (2012) as well as the large scale collages the works use different temporalities and topographies, creating anew, environments. A consistent reality is being suggested, while their timelines appear vague and touch, altogether, the sphere of the imaginary.

In the installation Astero (2012) the his-story of the place where Golden Star cinema used to run in Kontemenos village, is being re-constructed, now being a munitions depot for the Turkish troops. A series of simultaneous narratives relating a violent story of passion that shook the wider community and marked the place’s history are juxtaposed in a new space, creating new layers of spacious -temporal perceptions.

In the work Every Dawn (2012) Nicosia’s International Airport is approached as a point of failure and relentless anticipation. Screenshots of Nicosia’s airport, taken in the evening to early morning hours, are in a constant loop; without the dawn ever coming to its completion. The atmospheric sense of space during daybreak recalls romantic depictions of the island, found in tourist guides as well as creates the anticipation of completion, thus, indicating an upcoming return to the long-familiar image of the airport. At the same time, it highlights the architectural contours of this emblematic building of
modernism? which function, up until 1974, legitimised the post-colonial era and the establishment of the new state. An architectural model of the building is reconstructed where its coating techniques and material, popular in the 60s and 70s, invalidates the building’s modernist aesthetic and reflect upon the codes that formulate notions of identity, while employing their own mechanisms. The work is completed with an ambient sound of the airport space.

On a closer look, the viewer is confronted with multiple surfaces as layered through notions of memory and space, reflecting on ideas of displacement and fragmentation.

The works are in a constant «simulacrum», in a state of constant reproduction as seen in the works The Eighth Day (2012) and Anti-Protasis (2012). The metal construction, as it appears in the collage and the (architectural) model, is detached from its original context and re-emerges either remote, as in the case of the work Anti-Protasis (2012), or is being recomposed in a new environment. In both cases, a true copy of the original is neither certain, nor is the identity that they both, now, carry. The act of architectural redesigning that came before its new making in Anti-Protasis, (2012), signifies a reversibility of the rational sequence (since the structure was already build); or even of the structure’s endless repetition.

The works are in a state of becoming, where their deconstruction and reconstruction imply the possibility of multiple centres or even their loss, as well the possibility of multiple narratives as might every time, arise.

Vicky Pericleous (b.1976) lives and works in Nicosia. She is a visual artist and lecturer at Frederick University, Nicosia, Department of Applied Arts. She holds a B.A (Hons) Fine Art from Manchester Metropolitan University and M.A in Theatre Design / Scenography (now renamed Visual Language of Performance) from Wimbledon School of Art, London. Her work moves within interdisciplinary areas and diverse media. It includes site-specific installations, happenings and performances in off gallery venues. She has taken part in solo and group shows in Cyprus and abroad, such as Uncovered: Nicosia International Airport, 2010-2013 (where she was a member of the project’s development team) curated by Pavlina Paraskevaidou and Basak Senova, Monodrome, 3rd Athens Biennale curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Xenia Kalpaktsoglou & Poka-Yio, Chypre 2010, L’art au
Present curated by Andri Michael and Yiannis Toumazis in Paris, Little Land Fish, Exhibition under the umbrella of Istanbul Cultural Capital of Europe 2010, curated by Dr. Antonis Danos and Dr. Zeynep Yasa Yaman, Antrepo 5, Sanat Limani, Istanbul, Turkey and UTOPIA: New acquisitions from the collection of Nicos Chr. Pattichis and “Phileleftheros” newspaper, curated by Elena Parpa and Maria Stathi, Evagoras Lanitis Centre, Limassol, 2012. She has presented work as an invited artist in seminars, conferences and organised talks. Vicky Pericleous is represented by Omikron Gallery, Nicosia.

Private view: April 27th 2012, 20:00

Opening Hours
Monday - Friday 10:00-13:00 & 16:00-20:00
Saturday: 10:00-14:00