“Wearing”
Nikos Pantazopoulos
14 Nov → 13 Dec 2014
On display are photographs that Nikos Pantazopoulos hermetically prepared in the studio. These austere pictures are made with his body and with the assistance of light. The mark of the artist is set onto the surface of the photographic paper as he pushes and pulls on the shirt, the jacket and his body that he wears - as it conceals and exposes a compound of actions within the frame and beyond the frame. In focus, out of focus, black, white, shades, tones, flatness, depth. The surfaces of the images obstruct and conceal flashes of a body. A body in an event, that desires an event, that performs for the event. The stasis of movement is captured to emphasize the indexical abstractions of labour inherent in the production of the work. Pantazopoulos fetishizes the material used in the photographer’s studio and the post-production space as ready-mades to build a sculptural form. With cotton and ink, processed to a pulp he casts and projects to mark this event to mark this site.
Dr Nikos Pantazopoulos completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne in 1998, a Masters of Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London in 2007, and a PhD at Monash University, Melbourne in 2013. He is a lecturer in the Print Imaging Practice studio area at RMIT University, Melbourne. Pantazopoulos’s recent projects include Australian Tapestry Workshop residency, Melbourne, 2014; Fucking in Solidarity, National Gallery of Victoria, Catalogue Essay, When This you See Remember Me, David McDiarmid Retrospective, Melbourne, 2014; The Spirit & Spark of David McDiarmid Symposium, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2014; The Purple Onion, TCB art inc, Melbourne, 2014; Re-building, The Substation, Melbourne, 2014; Private View & Occasional Performance, Dudspace, Melbourne, 2014; Decisions RMIT Project Space, Melbourne, 2013; Dark Rooms RMIT Project Space Melbourne, 2013; Octopus 10, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 2010; A Monument to toilets; An Exhibition and Procession, White Cubicle Toilet Gallery, London, 2010.
Pantazopoulos would like to thank Peter Cross and Francis E Parker for their insightful dialogue and written contribution to this project. The Australian Arts Council also generously supports this project.
Nikos Pantazopoulos is a Melbourne-based artist and Lecturer in the School of Art at RMIT. He situates his work in post-minimalism and abstraction.