A series of artwork depicting miniature elderly women, living isolated in rural areas of Greece. The artist approaches the female existence in a metaphysical representation, one that emerges from the past and the modern Greek history. “The oldies” symbolise memory and were inspired by women during the interwar, the Nazi, Occupation in Greece, the Greek Resistance and the Greek Civil War. It represents the women who coped with all of life’s setbacks like ghosts, never stepping into the spotlight, always behind heroes, waiting outside of hospitals, prisons, jails and stations, and who today are the last living memory carriers in 20th century Greece.
The size of the miniatures does not exceed 25cm. The wooden figures in black highlight the imprint of time through the transmogrification the deterioration of the body. The dynamic shadows and the rigid image of every figure, mirror the inner world of the human entity and waver between time and inertia, existence and non-existence, fiction and reality, having the form of a woman haunting the space.
Creator’s note
“The Oldies” artwork aims to preserve folklore and cultural heritage through the features of elderly women, which originate from the past and are maintained in the present. The image of women has changed over time. In modern society, people evolve, and their way of life is almost nothing like that of the last century. It is, therefore, only natural that these characteristic black- clad and mournful figures of women, the very few nowadays with headscarves and canes in hand, carrying the burden and hardship of the 20th century, will soon be a thing of the past.
The woman’s journey through the centuries, from ancient Greek to modern society, has many variations. For example, the heroines of the ancient Greek theatre, such as Antigone, Iphigenia, Medea, leave their shocking stories as a legacy of humanity. In modern Greek literature, the woman appears again through Alexandros Papadiamantis, who created heroic symbols and, with “Fonissa” (The Murderess) on top of all of them, narrated what was happening in the dark shadows of Greek society in the late 19th and early 20th century.
With “The Oldies”, I try to contribute to the folklore and cultural heritage of Greece, bringing to the stage the invisible heroines of the Occupation, the Resistance, the Interwar, the Civil War and the later era. Βy highlighting them as protagonists, we pay due attention and recognize their part in history.
