"now the weakening shadow remains and its cracked confidence…" @ProArts Gallery, Oakland (a quote from”Orientations” by Odysseas Elytis, translated from Greek by Nikos Sarris & Jeffrey Carson)
2 x 2 Solos is a series of solo exhibitions featuring new work from four accomplished emerging artists based in the Oakland/Bay Area. The program recognizes artistic excellence and supports the freedom to create challenging and noncommercial work.
Curated by Samantha Reynolds.
A site-specific installation of found, natural and manmade materials exploring the desire for connectivity, the fragility of networks and the effects of displacement in relationship to the body.
To quote Reynolds words: "Skandali’s rooted in a deep reverence for the natural environment and the importance of place as a signifier for identity. Gathering materials from her home island of Paros, Greece, local Bay Area beaches and international travel destinations, Skandali collects, dries and crochets strands of seaweed, among other materials, to create an immersive environment within the gallery. Through her labor-intensive process and repurposing of materials, Skandali creates an open-ended and empathetic space for visitors to explore and investigate.
For this installation at Pro Arts, Skandali has added sound elements to further activate the gallery space and immerse visitors in a sensory experience. By contrasting the fragility and physicality of the material with a cacophony of violent and shifting sounds, Skandali’s intricate web becomes susceptible to outside forces and dependent on its interconnectivity for survival. This push-pull relationship between audio and raw materials references contemporary experiences of displacement in connection to the instability of current global political, social, economic, and cultural climates.
Skandali’s installation of intertwining and diverging lines simultaneously recognizes our diversity of networks, pasts and origins, while also calls to our basic human desire to connect to our environment and to one another."
Exhibition catalog for the 2016 2x2 Solos featuring artists: Luca Antonucci, Sahar Khoury, Dimitra Skandali, and Christie Yuri Noh is available here: http://www.blurb.com/b/7511734-2x2-solos-2016
or at ProArts Gallery @150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, CA 94612
510-763-4361
info@proartsgallery.org.
Also, please, read an interview with Samantha Reynolds at the following link if you are interested: https://proartsgallery.org/page/15/?post_type=post
Installation dimensions: 10 x 12 x 12 feet (HxDxW)
Window installation dimensions: 10 x 3 x 12 (HxDxW)
July 2016