''My work consists of performance, set design, sculpture, and installation, yet at the core of my practice, I am a painter.
Coming from this background, I have formulated a visual language that transfers to all these mediums. I am coming from a lineage of artists like Matisse, Hartley, Niki de Saint Phalle Louise Bonnet and Tal R. I use bold forms that mold into familiar shapes in order to describe a figure. I see form as something mailable.
Shapes are abstracted to create a composition rather than depict a subject.
My use of color is instinctive, I strive for a harmony that makes sense emotionally rather than logically.
For me painting is a spiritual act. It is a way of traveling to a time when the sacred and the profane were united; resonating with a force of love that permeates through all existence. Away of seeing ourselves as part of nature and of all life forms.
This knowledge is ingrained in traditions such as the Dream Time of the Australian Aborigines, The Beloved in Sufism and the Great Goddess of Neolithic communities in Old Europe.
These ideas can provide us with direction in a time of unlimited access to information yet with a deep lack of meaning.
While these approaches have not been absorbed by the academic community, they can give us important insight on how to structure systems of respect amongst ourselves and our environment.
Tracing the fundamental concepts of ‘western thought’ and progress to Ancient Greece and further back, I try to find where rationality took over intuition as a valid form of knowledge. I see our perception of gender as a direct expression of this paradigm shift.
I question these roles, seeing ourselves not as only political yet as spiritual and ecological beings belonging to a grander whole.
To talk about these ideas I use the language of myth. I see mythology as a string of poetic instances that capture ideas spanning from the beginning of humanity. Communicating to us both intellectually and esoterically and giving explanations our most basic human experiences.
These tales hold within them cultural, historic and existential values. Speaking to our inner selves, they have been used as building blocks to construct philosophies, identities, and mass ideals. In my work, I re-approach these stories, looking deeper into theirorigins and retelling them translating a message of love, unity, and equality.''
Thoughts on Practice
Written by the artist
Athens 2024.
Aristeidis Lappas (b. 1993 Athens) lives and works in Athens.
He completed a BA degree at the University of West England, Bristol, during which time he took part in an exchange program with the Accademia di Belle Arti, Bologna.
