Dimitra Charamandas

"Charamandas’ artistic process begins from the physical; through embodied outdoor research during which she walks, sketches, paints and writes. In her vast acrylic and oil on canvas paintings and her smaller mixed-media works, the artist approaches  landscapes as a series of bodies: A jagged coastline path that traces the extremities of an island; a gentle slope that leads to a smoking crater; a body of water that divides continents and enables or inhibits the flow of real, human bodies. 

She interrogates the latent violence embedded in otherwise beautiful topographies, aware of the invisible forces that have molded the earth over millennia, whether through pressure; condensing time into a solid tangible mass, or erosion; gradually allowing what is concealed to come to the surface. The Caldera or volcano crater recurs in her work as a symbol for forces that lay dormant till they reach boiling point, for the fault lines between subjective realities.

Her palette is inspired by the natural pigments of the landscapes through which she walks. The lilac of resilient wildflowers, the yellow sulfur of volcanic detritus, and the terracotta tones of a fertile – or contaminated – soil all make their way onto her canvases, which are executed based on sketches and photographs taken on site.

Through her slow travel and the observation of minute, cyclical changes, Charamandas’s practice embodies an ecofeminist worldview that challenges a prevalent value system of speed and efficiency in the name of productivity. In her sculptural work and her artistic gatherings centered around food and community exchange, she invokes a politics of care, boldly embarking on traditionally “nurturing” endeavors in a context that would see them sidelined or devalued.

An initial body of work was born out of an artist residency in Greece. On the Greek island of Lesbos, one of the last stations on this journey across the country, the artist spent time in a garden near the now-disbanded Moria refugee camp. In proximity to this ebb and flow of asylum seekers journeying to Europe, the artist embarked on her daily practice of walks as a way to challenge her body and practice out of stasis, against the backdrop of a moment of collective crisis that had left many frozen in fear and frustration.

Through her work, the artist reflects on her own liminal position between cultures, languages and countries, harnessing this tension as a fruitful force that can be channeled towards movement and creation. The exhibition Body of Water, Body of Stone builds on this initial body of work, and presents depictions of an ethereal landscape; part memory, part fantasy, part vision for an alternative relationship between body and territory."

Exhibition text Body of Water Body of Stone, Lara El Gibaly, Gypsum Gallery
October 2022