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The exhibition’s title 'Push Buttons' comes from the space of contemplation and unavoidable acknowledgment of the unique, and uniquely technologized, conditions we all have found ourselves in, in the year 2021. Not reactionary or tendentious, the thematic terrain it addresses is presented as an inevitable continuation of the artist’s ongoing rumination on the specific aspects of the endlessly lateralizing informational landscape of our lives and its affective impact on the mental topography of modern subjects. Push Button – as both a command, a temptation, a lever of control, and a point of immediate access – is, Kafouros writes, “about the asymmetric forces exerting each other against the flipping backdrops of the physical world and digital space, forging shapes through which our inevitably augmented perception processes, exposes itself”. It is, equally, an allusion to the notion of pushing one another’s buttons, a deliberate provocation that the colloquial meaning of the phrase would suggest, as well as the way the tech industry structures its omni-pervasive presence in daily life around just this type of trigger dynamic, constantly pinging, prodding, and overwhelming with irresistible oversaturation of input. In addressing this condition, all the pieces in this show embed an exacerbated reflection of that very mechanism into their own composition.
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As with the artist’s earlier work, the paintings on view in the exhibition are best seen as instances of experiential art. While their medium may present at first glance as traditional paint on flat canvas, the true impact of these works reveals itself within the cognitive space of their perceiver, the utterly hypnotizing effect of the deliberate density of their virtuosic composition; unfolding gradually as a deeply personal processual revelation, rather than in simple terms of seeing and acknowledging a singular image. These canvases present a quasi-sculptural space that creates an environment for the viewer’s eye to move around in a direct parallel to the way a body may move around in exploring an architecturally marvellous interior, creating singularly personal mental narratives and co-creating anew with each approach. It is for this reason that owners of Kafouros’ works often remark that their canvases appear to keep unfolding and disclosing themselves over the span of time with every reencounter and contemplation upon their surface. That is the effect of the paintings’ direct inspiration in the tradition of Buddhist mandalas – circular works of repeating patterns expressly composed for the purposes of meditation and mental absorption beyond the confines of the ego-sphere. Geometry here is not a detail but a focal point.
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Elias Kafouros | Push Buttons: Dio Horia Gallery proudly presents Elias Kafouros’ solo exhibition titled Push Buttons.
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