Olive tree trunks have received my first artworks as grids of white threads, which I made through a ritualistic and meditative procedure that helped me connect with the land and the surrounding nature. Working in the landscape has been a significant part of my artistic implementation and has come naturally, as I have been raised on a farm in Central Greece. I also love plants, and I have used them in many projects, so when I'm not creating in nature, I try to incorporate them into artwork created indoors. I have occasionally worked with acanthus leaves, asphodels and other wildflowers, Parkinsonia trees, as well as various succulents.
Recording the number of steps, routes, and distances I cover while walking in the landscape or the cityscape is an important element of my artistic research and development. They are usually accompanied by temporary interventions in the public space or implemented at a later stage as an installation. I recently added the documentation of the hours of the duration of an ephemeral intervention.
I have used various types of thread and masking tape in a significant number of my projects. I create constellations of paths and works spread over an area topographically, as I did during my residency on the islet of Gozo in Malta as resident artist of the European Capital of Culture Valletta 2018. It took me 212,524 steps to create a series of works that make up a larger whole on the island. I have created projects in various types of buildings, such as neglected mansions, archaeological sites, 16th century monasteries and tanneries, or even barns.
The element of a light beam is also found in many of my works, from the New York City and Athens interventions and those in Malta to the installation at the Ursuline Monastery in Tinos in 2017, where almost burning rays of silk thread, burned by the intense light, came through the windows to create a wider grid of light inside the historic building. Also in cases of old and abandoned buildings, I use my materials to heal what has been worn away and make up for what has been permanently lost during the short lifespan of my intervention. It is a momentary architectural gesture of restoration without the ambition of time and duration.
My artwork has been articulated as a humble attempt at perception, understanding, and inclusion, where people could measure themselves and meditate, facing a larger or pre-existing structure through it. Measurement and light, pacing and nature, the healing and restoration of a landscape or a building, scale and geometry, and the fragile and temporary elements of my works constitute a constant search for what exists beyond, before, and after us.