Mariel Kouveli
Reel time
20 Oct - 11 Nov 2023
Presented within the framework of Limassol Art Walks, at Christodoulos Panayiotou Studio
Agora Anexartisias #34, 3036, Limassol
the cotton
tank-top
on back of
chair is a
photograph
Thousand Julys presents Reel time, a solo exhibition by artist Mariel Kouveli. Kouveli’s work presents a reverence for the mundane or leisurely moments in everyday life, manifesting in photographs with a documentary or archival style that attempt to observe and understand humanity, its origins and idiosyncrasies.
In Reel time, snapshots accumulate to create a record of images that captures an unfiltered, raw state of human experience. What is prevalent in Kouveli’s work is a sense of the photographer’s silence, who takes the position of the observer rather than director. The camera acts as an eye which records her field of vision, resulting in ‘pictures that feel like seeing’.
In their distinct lack of drama and unaestheticised style, the weight of the photographs moves beyond the photographer’s perspective, putting the attention onto the subject, or rather using attention as a subject itself. What is highlighted are moments of wonder, discovery, surprise or amusement. These come from the connections, or lack thereof, between the subjects and their surroundings, the histories they carry, the contexts they are found in.
At its core, the work is very much autobiographical, as there are various recurring themes, which she always goes back to, related to people she grew up with: her grandfather’s obsession with history and archaeology and his collection of books, her grandmother’s love for travel and all the gathered seashells that filled her house, her dad’s vividly descriptive and surreal storytelling.
Without inserting ‘romance’ into the pictures, which connotes a remoteness from everyday life, in this series of works, we are instead placed directly in the midst of modern life and its components. Nevertheless, a sense of accidental beauty permeates the work, captured while fleeting.
1. Gerard Malanga, Scent, for Sally Mann, Mythologies of the Heart, 1996, p.102
2. Stephen Shore, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5xAxqbtz9o
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For prices and availability please contact us at info@thousandjulys.com.
Reel time
20 Oct - 11 Nov 2023
Presented within the framework of Limassol Art Walks, at Christodoulos Panayiotou Studio
Agora Anexartisias #34, 3036, Limassol
the cotton
tank-top
on back of
chair is a
photograph
Thousand Julys presents Reel time, a solo exhibition by artist Mariel Kouveli. Kouveli’s work presents a reverence for the mundane or leisurely moments in everyday life, manifesting in photographs with a documentary or archival style that attempt to observe and understand humanity, its origins and idiosyncrasies.
In Reel time, snapshots accumulate to create a record of images that captures an unfiltered, raw state of human experience. What is prevalent in Kouveli’s work is a sense of the photographer’s silence, who takes the position of the observer rather than director. The camera acts as an eye which records her field of vision, resulting in ‘pictures that feel like seeing’.
In their distinct lack of drama and unaestheticised style, the weight of the photographs moves beyond the photographer’s perspective, putting the attention onto the subject, or rather using attention as a subject itself. What is highlighted are moments of wonder, discovery, surprise or amusement. These come from the connections, or lack thereof, between the subjects and their surroundings, the histories they carry, the contexts they are found in.
At its core, the work is very much autobiographical, as there are various recurring themes, which she always goes back to, related to people she grew up with: her grandfather’s obsession with history and archaeology and his collection of books, her grandmother’s love for travel and all the gathered seashells that filled her house, her dad’s vividly descriptive and surreal storytelling.
Without inserting ‘romance’ into the pictures, which connotes a remoteness from everyday life, in this series of works, we are instead placed directly in the midst of modern life and its components. Nevertheless, a sense of accidental beauty permeates the work, captured while fleeting.
1. Gerard Malanga, Scent, for Sally Mann, Mythologies of the Heart, 1996, p.102
2. Stephen Shore, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5xAxqbtz9o
------------------------------------------------------------------
For prices and availability please contact us at info@thousandjulys.com.
