Pavlos Tsakonas
solo show
06.03.13 - 06.04.13
A series of works with acrylics on plywood which balance between painting and sculpture.Oversized objects, drawn with absolute realism and a quite pop attitude spread inside the gallery, which the artist transforms into a huge showcase conceived as a contemporary "Cabinet of Curiosities".
The objects, sometimes painted in unexpected colors and some other times made in unexpected dimensions create sets according to their placement in space and lead the spectator to explore them in a series of narratives.
A “Cabinet of curiosities” or else "Cabinet of Wonders" was an encyclopedic collection in Renaissance Europe of various types of objects, which had some ethnographic, geologic, religious, scientific, or other interest but which were still difficult to define according to category.
Also known in german as "Kunstkammer" or "Wunderkammern" meaning " art - room" or "Wonder - room", these cases often included works of art, antiquities or historical relics. Their collection and display was seen as a microcosm, a theater of the world and a memory theater As an alternative kind of encyclopedia, such collections were formed by Kings, aristocrats and members of the merchant class or practitioners of science and are considered the precursors to museums.
From a similar point of view, Pavlos Tsakonas aims through this show to anachronistically recreate inside the gallery space a feeling of surprise and inspire wonder in a similar manner to the original “Wunderkammer”. His works, mainly everyday objects meticulously painted in every detail aim to inspire the visitors’curiosity, marvel or surprise. In this manner, the exhibition falls into a kind of refined "Cabinet of Curiosities", commenting on the use of the gallery space as a tool for the production of knowledge while simultaneously exploring the ways in which "surprise" or“wonder” can be manifested through artistic discourse today. [source ]
A “Cabinet of curiosities” or else "Cabinet of Wonders" was an encyclopedic collection in Renaissance Europe of various types of objects, which had some ethnographic, geologic, religious, scientific, or other interest but which were still difficult to define according to category.
Also known in german as "Kunstkammer" or "Wunderkammern" meaning " art - room" or "Wonder - room", these cases often included works of art, antiquities or historical relics. Their collection and display was seen as a microcosm, a theater of the world and a memory theater As an alternative kind of encyclopedia, such collections were formed by Kings, aristocrats and members of the merchant class or practitioners of science and are considered the precursors to museums.
From a similar point of view, Pavlos Tsakonas aims through this show to anachronistically recreate inside the gallery space a feeling of surprise and inspire wonder in a similar manner to the original “Wunderkammer”. His works, mainly everyday objects meticulously painted in every detail aim to inspire the visitors’curiosity, marvel or surprise. In this manner, the exhibition falls into a kind of refined "Cabinet of Curiosities", commenting on the use of the gallery space as a tool for the production of knowledge while simultaneously exploring the ways in which "surprise" or“wonder” can be manifested through artistic discourse today. [source ]
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