SIMPLY CRYSTALS Athens 2015

på center for Hellenistisk traditon udstillede jeg billeder, Fra på en måneds ophold i athen. Det er gouacher på millimeterpapir og en collage af fotografier fra byen

English below

SIMPLY CRYSTALS Athens 2015

At the center of Hellenistic traditon, I showed pictures, from one month's stay in the Athens. It is gouacher on millimeter paper and a collage of photographs from the city

 

ABOUT SIMPLY CRYSTALS

It looks like nothing we have seen before – circular and oval formations painted on graph paper - and yet somehow these forms seem recognizable. Like planets in a galaxy, octopi in motion, your grandmothers’ embroideries or a patterned dress. A wave of ornamentation like those found on the inside of our eyelids, in nature and in cultural contexts is what Ida F. Ferdinand brings forth in her watercolors.

Ida F. Ferdinand lived and worked in Athens in February 2015. She took in the dusty locales, visited the museums and examined Minoan culture, Byzantine icons, and tradtional costumes.What she saw has been transformed into a series of works that can be viewed at the show SIMPLY CRYSTALS.
On the walls of Hadrians room hang 48 pictures. Each is numbered and the graph paper indicates both a frame and tone. On the rooms’ long tables lie Ida F. Ferdinands photographs of Athens. She has been transfixed by the multi-faceted nature of the city and its’ locales and has recorded her fascination in photographs. The artist shows her work in the context that they were made in by exhibiting at the Center of Hellenic Tradition in Plaka.
 

 

ME AND ATHENS

In February 2015 I stayed in Athens. A freezing cold winter longing for the rooftop terrace, yet clinging to the heater in the living room. With a view of Parthenon Temple on Acropolis I used my paint and pencils to create a series of pictures now named Simply Crystals.

Working on the project it seemed like the city, with all its gray, beige, washed orange and white buildings became my colors to come down on the paper. The ornamental tradition manifesting itself in the public space and the rich ornament so well presented in the magnificent museums in Athens became my masters. I glanced at the Minoan culture, byzantine icons, traditional customs and roman arches etc. preserved the buity of our ancestor’s creations in me. And in my paintings it seemed like my hand through my body transformed this into a now being!

I have a life long love affair with Greece. Starting back in the 80 ths when Paros was the center of my Greek world.  Much later I travelled extensively on lots of Greek island in order to write travel guides.  I have written 3 different guidebooks on Samos Lesbos, Crete and Rhodes and Kos.

In learning and exploring about Greek culture and history and a profound interest let me to Athens in 2015. This time not with the purpose of writing but now painting.

2015, Ida F. Ferdinand