Transient Art On The Walls Of Athens: 1.Graffiti

Theme: Science Fiction

Some of the strange characters that can be found on the walls of Athens seem to have jumped out of science fiction novels. Take Eros and Dreik for example. They were found on the walls of a parking area in central Athens. Both a bit blue and overweight they stand checking the cars that go in and out. Their immobility all these years on the wall has had serious consequences on their physical appearance.




Further down the street you might come across the cloud people. Strange personalities constantly talking about cloud 9.





The green masks have now become old retired super heroes who wear their masks on the weekend to remember their moments of glory.





Strange creatures seem to be everywhere in Athens. They have become familiar faces that one greets everyday on his way to work.

The Chiaroscuro Life Of Caravaggio

Andrew Graham-Dixon's book is a well researched and fascinating biography of a painter that lived a life as dramatic and extreme as the paintings he left behind. Caravaggio was different. His perspective on religious symbolism embraced truth and not glorification of the divine. Violence, sex, dirt were part of everyday life in the beginning of the 17th century. Caravaggio did not aspire with his paintings to move the common people towards the divine. He rather brought the divine down to the people in a pictorial form that they could perfectly relate to. The faces of Caravaggio's saints and martyrs were not idolised portraits but real human beings. Old men and women, beggars, prostitutes and pimps who take up their roles and re-enact scenes of religious passion.


And then his choice of when to depict the exact moment of the unfolding drama and of course the use of light, shadow and darkness will influence so many painters such as Rembrandt for example. Caravaggio's paintings are snapshots from obscure rehearsals of plays that were never performed because they were always quite provoking and overtly sensual to conform to what was considered proper at the time.


Caravaggio's life was no less real and anti-conformist. Graham-Dixon looks in the archives, blows away the dust from manuscripts and old leather bound books, analyzes the paintings and manages to lift a little the fog surrounding the painter's constant obsessions which quickly turn to confrontations with disastrous results. Duels, murder, narrow escapes, Malta and the Knights of Saint John, the Vatican, ugly scars and a death which was fitting in drama to any of his paintings, make for a fascinating read.





In the end Caravaggio's life caught up with his painting or the other way round and they became entwined. He actively sought redemption the only way he knew which was through painting. The painting of "David with the Head of Goliath" from 1609-1610 where Caravaggio has put himself in the place of Goliath, was his way of saying I am carrying the guilt and I need absolution which in the end was never forthcoming.

Transient Art On The Walls Of Athens: 3. Poster

Theme: The art of the accidental collage

As I was walking in the streets of Athens near the area of Exarcheia, a wonderful idea came to my mind just by looking the layers upon layers of half torn posters on the walls. I suddenly realised that I could photograph interesting accidental collages from the different overlapping and torn posters already posted on the walls.

But of course I soon found out, to my disappointment, that the idea was far from original having been first thought of by André Breton’s Surrealist group in the 1930s. I later on looked in the net and discovered a very interesting article written by Rick Poynor in the internet Eye Magazine from 2001 called "Surface Wreckage". Here is an extract from this article:

" ... The idea that mangled street posters might be physically appropriated for artistic purposes is attributed to Léo Malet, a French poet, who was briefly a member of André Breton’s Surrealist group. In the mid-1930s, observing the processes by which pristine printed images were transformed, Malet proposed a new form of Surrealist street poetry shaped by chance. “Soon,” he wrote, “collage will be executed without scissors, without a razor, without paste . . . Abandoning the artist’s table and his pasteboard, it will take its place on the walls of the city, the unlimited field of poetic realisations.” Commercial artists would supply the raw materials and passing pedestrians, aided by wind and rain, would intervene to unlock new meanings never intended by the designers, as fragments of earlier images, hidden below the top poster, were once again exposed to view... "

Anyway, for what it's worth, here is my attempt at the art of the accidental collage...

The above mentioned article can be found here:

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=17&fid=122

Transient Art On the Walls Of Athens: 3. Poster

The variety of layers upon layers of posters posted in the area of Exarcheia is impressive. With themes that cover serious issues such as immigration, corrupt politicians, statements of political intent and revolution, resistance to police and state brutality in all its forms and the isolating effect of modern society, they often use a humorous way to captivate the passer-by and pass the message quickly and effectively. Here are a few interesting examples: