M a s q u e r a d e s
Effie Halivopoulou creates an autonomous, entirely personal and integrated visual discourse on the body, incorporated within a broader framework of research. Over recent years she has shown a remarkably consistent and mature involvement with issues of biotechnology. In the four works being shown now for the first time she composes mainly cyclical forms which swim in a brilliant sea of colors, different textures, materials and shapes, landscapes which evoke magnified images from the interior of the human body. Halivopoulou's work raises unavoidable questions associated with the biological genetic definition of man's physical, mental and psychological characteristics, in relation to a socially controlled context which makes it difficult to achieve differentiation from a predetermined course. In other words, it raises the question of personal choices against the imperative laws of heredity and the environment, questioning the limits of personal freedom in the forming of subjectivity and consequently of the gender identity. The framework of the debate is now being altered and securing an additional, bio-ethical dimension, since science now allows us to intervene in genetic material, planning and ensuring certain desired characteristics. Perhaps this is why in the work titled Chain of Fools the cyclical structure hints at the possibility of alternating the position and choice associated with gender. It is also the only one of the four works in the group which attempts a clear figurative representation, with the play of the white palms and bulb-marbles which roll across the background on which symbols of the masculine and feminine are scattered.
_________________________________________
Syrago Tsiara, Director, Center for Contemporary Art
State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
Catalogue text, exhibition "Masculinity, Femininity and other Certainties"
State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, 2006
Effie Halivopoulou creates an autonomous, entirely personal and integrated visual discourse on the body, incorporated within a broader framework of research. Over recent years she has shown a remarkably consistent and mature involvement with issues of biotechnology. In the four works being shown now for the first time she composes mainly cyclical forms which swim in a brilliant sea of colors, different textures, materials and shapes, landscapes which evoke magnified images from the interior of the human body. Halivopoulou's work raises unavoidable questions associated with the biological genetic definition of man's physical, mental and psychological characteristics, in relation to a socially controlled context which makes it difficult to achieve differentiation from a predetermined course. In other words, it raises the question of personal choices against the imperative laws of heredity and the environment, questioning the limits of personal freedom in the forming of subjectivity and consequently of the gender identity. The framework of the debate is now being altered and securing an additional, bio-ethical dimension, since science now allows us to intervene in genetic material, planning and ensuring certain desired characteristics. Perhaps this is why in the work titled Chain of Fools the cyclical structure hints at the possibility of alternating the position and choice associated with gender. It is also the only one of the four works in the group which attempts a clear figurative representation, with the play of the white palms and bulb-marbles which roll across the background on which symbols of the masculine and feminine are scattered.
_________________________________________
Syrago Tsiara, Director, Center for Contemporary Art
State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
Catalogue text, exhibition "Masculinity, Femininity and other Certainties"
State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, 2006
