The island of copper and hospitality, where ancient goddesses and refugees rise from the turquoise sea – our sea. But not our own refugees, no. Those are copyright ours and we declare their #humanrights (and votes). The refugees that seek for a place to call home are pushed back to the turquoise in their sinking boats, they don’t fit in our hospitality. #stayhome #staysafe
Push-back hospitality, 2021
Copper, thread, teabag, wire, oil
This painting is paired with two compositions by Stelios Christodoulou
The whore / Η πόρνη
Androniki / Ανδρονίκη
There is an idiom in my Native land saying “How many chairs does (hu)man need at the coffee shop to sit“. The coffee shop (kafenes) is the miniature of the society of Cyprus, where all social phenomena are consentrated, including sexism.
Aphrodite is present, anapologetically naked, proud of her migrant past, the powerful female this island cannot deny.
A society led by nationalist men, a theocracy dictating the market, the culture of shame, the narrative of proper women, rotten ethos.
Ibrahim’s Khan, Pafos, Cyprus
October- November 2017
Group exhibition and multidisciplinary cultural event
Part of the official program of European Capital of Culture Pafos 2017
Apus apus is the Latin name for the common swift, a bird whose annual migration route links Finland and Cyprus. The swift is a nomad, capable of remaining in near-constant flight during the early years of its life. These attributes inspired the group, members of which have adopted various cultures and countries as their home during the course of their lives.
Apus apus is a group of seven artists from Finland and Cyprus.
Observing you 2017
I Wear you 2017, back
Thoughts on the hybridity of cultures. Every individual has a unique cultural identity, which is similar to one’s neighbour, and has common aspects with cultures from the farthest point of the globe.
Observing you communicates the importance of perspective, understanding that one
person’s view is only one side of a reality. Reality has endless viewpoints, which are all
equally true.
I wear you expresses our foremothers’ role in the formation of one’s cultural heritage. Those characteristics that we consider representative for our homeland, might be personalized.
“Feeling of home”, “Borderless” and “Matriarch” at Familiar Stories exhibition
“Feeling of home”
36 x 45 x 18 cm, mixed media
“Borderless”
34 x 45 x 15 cm, mixed media
“Matriarch”
34 x 45 x 18 cm, mixed media
“Advice”
size alters, mixed media
detail from “Advice”
“Open door”
10 x 3 x 21 cm; wood, metal, collage, pigment
“Adrift”
20 x 12 x 12 cm, wood
Sculpture exhibition at the park of the Turku Castle (Turku, Finland)
Konstantina Niina Achilleos 