Roberta Waddell curator of prints on Sandworks

The black sandpaper served as a negative and the different sizes of the grain finally distorted the image, like the passing of time …

Pelagia Kyriazi

My interest in death, the final destination to which we are all bound, began long before I could manifest it artistically. When I visited Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery with a friend whose family is buried there, I was inspired to materialize the idea that germinated so many years ago. It was a cold, cloudy day in 1995. That in its poeticism appealed to my senses and I began photographing gravestones. The black and white film was a suitable medium to capture the grayness of the day, and the sorrowful gloominess of the environment brought about an impact about the finality of death.

These colorless shots acted as a matrix for me to launch a creative investigation of different printmaking techniques combining photography and silkscreen. I printed the images on sandpaper of varying grain, arriving at a textured composition that strengthened the melancholy tone of my theme. By increasing the grainy quality of the support I was able to effect a blurriness that was analogous to the fading-out of life itself. I worked with the juxtaposition of negative and positive figures and space. On the black sandpaper, the shapes materialize as phantasms if the paint application is tightly controlled or varied according to the desired effect. The key to this technique is finding the balance that renders a sensitive print.

Pelagia Kyriazi

Tenri Cultural Institute, New York City
exhibition curated by art historian
Dr. Thalia Vrachopoulos

Installation view at Tenri Cultural Institute, New York City

Installation view at Tenri Cultural Institute, New York City