VESTIGES
What remains and other stories
charcoal on paper
50x65cm
Vestiges. This is the title of Anna Foka’s first painting exhibition at the French Institute of Thessaloniki. Composed as a visual storytelling or a mosaic, her work could also be described as a strange patchwork of enigmatic stories without a beginning, a middle or an end. Painting by painting, we follow their lead, seeking to grasp the fantastic past they seem to refer to. The plot is revealed by the fragmentary visual narrative proposed by the artist; a story reflecting the difficulty that memory, as well as narrative discourse itself, have in recording and representing experienced time. The past is always absent: all things come and go, leaving landscapes of decay in their wake. Despite the continuous flow of time and the inevitable forward motion of humanity, the need for a return to the past is inherent to human nature. Do we ever really leave anything behind? What remains of all that we have lived? And, if our experiences define us, how do we deal with this intangible heritage? These are some of the questions Anna Foka attempts to answer through her art.
charcoal on paper 50x34cm
Her work, replete with mnemonic references and meditations on the concept of identity, creates a kaleidoscopic space-time, to which a powerful dose of ambiguous humor lends a carnival-like atmosphere. As a counterpoint, she uses a backdrop of dystopic architectural shells of abandoned spaces where she places both real-life and imaginary characters borrowed from popular media, as well as from her own photographic archives. The coexistence of these odd, unrelated personas creates new, seemingly absurd associations and tensions that radically modify the meaning of the image.
acrylic on paper
mounted on canvas
130×195 cm
The artist’s aim is to fictionally recreate the history of her home town (which is none other than the Thessaloniki of her childhood), in an attempt to preserve its memory and to reinterpret certain key events in her life. Nothing is at it seems: the visual language, full of metaphors and allegories, of Anna Foka makes an indirect attempt at rendering the transient nature of existence, the fleeting of time, the irrevocability of our actions. This is the main theme that this series of works deals with – not merely traces or reflections, but tangible testimonies that in turn become personal encounters within the viewer’s own existence.
Stella Sylaiou