Dear viewer/visitor,
I still wander why the human figure fascinates me so much. I believe it all begun when I was around..,4! My mother would draw the outline of a figure and I used my color pencils like a little maniac to complete the drawing. Over the years I created a big file of mainly female drawings which I was proudly presenting to my friends and relatives, and giving away as Christmas presents. While studying my BA in Fine Art the human figure continued to be in the center of my interest. I explored various forms of art, such as photography, video, painting and sculpture, but the human figure was still haunting me. It was everywhere! My paintings, my photographs, my doodles. Coming to London last September made me think a bit more about my obsession, so I started drawing again my precious figures. But there was something new in my drawings, I wasn’t trying so hard anymore to depict the real facts about the body, I believe I was trying to get away from it. My drawings of that period have a more ironic character. Exaggerated body parts, big crazy eyes and smiles. The Venus of Willendorf has been the main source of inspiration, which is a small statuette found in Austria and estimated to be created between 25.000 and 28.000 BCE. But yet again, something was missing. And then it hit me! I have been always trying to draw or paint my figures, all of my work was 2D. No 3D, no real space around them. So I decided I wanted to somehow turn my plane representations to something that would fill the space. After lots of research I decided that tying wire would be the most appropriate material for my quest. It is easy to manipulate, you can bend it, fold it, cut it, create shapes and outlines with it, but still, it is metal, so it gives you a sense of hardness. To me, it looked like a material on which you could rely on to create smaller or bigger sculptures. My first attempts were quite small, but determined to keep creating, the size of my 3D work was getting bigger and bigger, with my sculptures for the MA Fine Art Final Show being around 2,2 – 3 meters high. The result looks like doodles have popped out of my sketchbook, became real and occupied the space around us. I understand that you might feel a bit different about my work, so to conclude I would like to give you the chance to let me know what you think/feel about my works. Please email me, I would be more than happy to talk further about my work! Many thanks to my fellow students, all those who made it to our show and all those who were mentally and physically by my side this whole past year. The MA has been a wonderful experience that I will always keep in my heart. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Kind regards, Dafni Bampanioti PS.1 My email address is [email protected] PS.2 You can also visit my website daphnebampanioti.wix.com/daphnebampanioti |