member of:Observers of the Interdependence of Domestic Objects and Their Influence on Everyday Life


This group has been active for a long time and has already made some remarkable assertions which render life simpler from the practical point of view. For example, I move a pot of green color five centimeters to the right, I push in the thumbtack beside the comb and if Mr. A (another adherent like me) at this moment puts his volume about bee-keeping beside a pattern for cutting out vests, I am sure to meet on the sidewalk of the avenida Madero a woman who intrigues me and whose origin and address I never could have known...
--Remedios Varo


(Slideshow is of Artwork by Remedios Varo)
By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.
--Franz Kafka

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Climb Higher


(Not Your Usual Saint)..All artwork in this post is by Stelios Faitakis.



Stelios Faitakis’ works show influences of Byzantine iconography, Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, Gustav Klimt’s swirling golden designs, and the Mexican muralists of Diego Rivera’s time: The working class, muscular and giant in their presence, take on the ominous power of grey factories, military planes, masked policemen, and many-headed (human-headed!) hydras against a shimmering golden backdrop. They are often haloed. The world is stacked, layer upon layer, and there are wood-block waves and flames and ghostly heads. Everything swirls together to create a painting or a mural that is completely “Faitakis.”



Above, on the ground we have destruction: a tsunami (notice the bodies and planks in the water), a monster led by human minds with a forking, satellite-tail, and a dark, polluting factory. There is no dry land; there is no safe footing. But there is a ladder; with some struggle, one can pull oneself out and up and into the soft gold “heavens.” The ugly disaster of physical life is contrasted with the golden eternity of a higher spiritual work.



Faitakis feels that art is part of human growth, and is a method of communication that is best when understood by all viewers. He longs to cover the “ugly” walls of Athens with public works, narratives of the average man overcoming his own monstrosity--and he has begun this daunting task already.




Trees as martyrs?



Discovered HERE.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for this excellent post, zoe.
    His works are wonderful! I'm a big fan of Klimt’s golden designs which remind me of Rimpa art. As for tsunami, we have a little different image from Faitakis' though his interpretation of it is very impressive. As the people in the affected area have repeatedly mentioned, we usually think that tsunami is like a gigantic soaring horizontally very long black wall. Anyway, his folding screen and your view are really fantastic! I enjoyed your interpretation very much!
    And Byzantium!! Last year I happened to write a couple of articles(in Japanese) on an Orthodox church in Tokyo. For reference I read several books on Byzantium. Of them, I was especially fascinated by Judith Herrin's "Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire". The fouth and sixth images took me back to the world in the book!

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  2. Magnifique, merci pour cette découverte!
    J'aime énormément ce mélange d'art sacré et de Pop Culture.

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  3. excellent! entre Byzance et Bosch...!

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