The World

"The World" is a presentation of the most recent series of works by artist Margarita Athanasiou. The digital collages and the text of the same title, were produced during a time of grief and were instrumental in processing the trauma of a separation. In line with Athanasiou's visual language, the collages combine original illustration and found imagery to construct esoteric landscapes ripe with hidden references that span from definitively personal to potentially universal.

These visual syntheses depict wild animals, plants, plastic rock formations, personal objects and items of historical significance to create small-scale monuments of the magical and the ordinary, still-lives that utilize archetypically romantic imagery, such as flowers and heart shapes, and the four elements - air, fire, water, earth – to depict fantastical scenes that are grandiosely pop, playfully whimsical and unashamedly self-referential.

Especially significant in the works is the visualization of sounds borrowed from the language of comics: Cracks, explosions, speech bubbles and narrative boxes are present in all collages, but as they are accompanied by no words, these gestural depictions of sound hint towards a plot that is not being verbalized. By creating a sense of the inaudible, Athanasiou suggests that the sound of things cracking or of things being discussed is taking place "off-screen", enhancing the sense that this inaccessible narrative is taking place internally, not unlike a recurring thought. The work is printed on film, utilizing the transparency of the material, the images are at points see-through, allowing the physical space to disrupt the image while communicating the fragility, transience and – oh well! – banality of interpersonal drama.