Maria Dimaki: the real story is you
It's impressive how a single story can inspire such diversity through different mediums! Visual artists from around the world are taking part in WHISTLE project, in an attempt to present a multi-sensory experience never attempted before in the Greek visual art scene. And that's because we do not think of visual art as an experience that when viewed fades away, but as an excuse, a triggering event, a reason to produce an artistic conversation and a literal dialogue with everyone interested. This is the way we feel visual art should work.
In this short article we meet visual artist, Maria Dimaki, from Greece.
How did you learn about WHISTLE project?
I saw a posting online, on Transartists.
What intrigued you?
Superstitions as a theme, is something so old yet present throughout all times. This endurance fascinates me. No technological advancement was able to make them disappear. Founded on our primitive fears and instincts they still exist.
How did you work the idea in your head?
My first thoughts were about traditions, stories printed on embroidery, lyrics taken from folklore songs. I chose to use a repetitive pattern, in order to illustrate the "survival" of superstitions from generation to generation.
What was your workflow?
I could not ignore the element of "sound" that is included in this story. It is pretty difficult to depict a sound onto a visual piece. So, since I usually work with x-rays, I thought to would be a good idea to use panoramic shots of oral cavities, as my canvas! Our mouth is what creates a "whistling" consequently bringing all this ill fortune...
Influences, Technique.
In my work, I get inspired by everyday experiences and dreams. A stain on my favorite t-shirt, a pump on a fresh painted wall, tiny smudges on paper that become shadows and then stories... I usually create pieces that combine art and medical science. Surrealistic anatomy designs, engravings and cuttings on x-rays,
What would you like to communicate with your work, to the viewers?
I would like to change the way we stereotypically see medical science. Using medical film (x-rays) as the base for my artistic work, I want to illustrate that there is an artistic side to this science. Xrays, apart from being diagnostic tools, they also present our agony about mortality. They are pictures of our common origins. Using engravings, I play with what exists under the skin, the surface and invite viewers to see themselves on a different level.
Can you comment on the idea of collective storytelling?
It is often said, that art is a lonely process. This is only part true. If we define art, as a common good, then collectivity is a part of it. Synergy in inspiration, communal ownership, technique as means of learning, education are all included in the realm of doing thing together . And here is a story, were we can all tell it together and individually at same time.
Why should anyone come to the exhibition, why support?
Because it would be a great chance to see not just a tale, but many micro-stories spawned by the imagination and fantasy of different personalities. To see how easy people work together when no rules are set on expression. Because art is a gift from a creator to its muse - that is the world into which we all live. Because the real story, the real theme is you, the viewer and your fear. Because your reflection on the mirror changes when someone else is holding it. Because you are curious. Because you want to learn and have fan. Because art is mostly feelings and you want to feel others and then yourself. For you own reasons, anyway....
Do you believe in superstitions?
My first thought was no. But as I was saying this to myself, a glass of water I was holding, slipped through my fingers and crushed on the floor and I said "oh, bad luck". You see, what our mind rejects, habit picks it up and keeps it tight. For me, superstitions are a form of habit. A phrase, a picture that stays with us as we grow up. It's a print left from one generation to another. It's a reflection to "never cross under a ladder", "to not leave your shoes on the table", "to avoid black cuts", "to", "to", "to"...
What is art to you?
It is my childhood. The place and time I choose to get my hands all dirty, like then.
The art samples presented in each interview, belong to each artist's personal pre-existing portfolio and not represent submitted work, to WHISTLE project. The later, will be presented to the public during the official exhibition.
Maria Dimaki is a Greek painter, engraver, writer, poet and Psychiatrist. Her works present engravings on medical x-rays. She developed her technique, inspired by the realism of medical photographs and the fear of humans for the inwardly...
Her works are displayed in private collections, in municipalities across Greece, in the MUMEDI museum, in the Yoshkar- Ola National Museum of Fine Arts (Russia), in Atelier d'Alexandrie (Agypt), in the Museum of Modern Art (CAM) of Napoli.