Opening: 1st February 2018
Gazelli Art House is delighted to announce the inaugural public placement of sculptures by critically acclaimed artist Kalliopi Lemos at London’s Greenwich Peninsula. Three celebrated works from an ongoing series Tools of Endearment – Bra (displayed at Les Moulins, France); Stiletto Heel (displayed at Golden Square, Soho, London) and the never before seen Corset will be on view for the first time at the Greenwich Peninsula from 1st February.
The thought-provoking series will be exhibited on the site of Greenwich Peninsula’s new Design District, London’s first purpose-built neighbourhood for the creative industries. As well as creating a diverse and inclusive creative economy, the one-hectare district will deliver a new cultural destination for London when it opens in 2019. Open workshops and studios will be set around a series of courtyards and a central public square, in a fully pedestrianised quarter with a transparent market hall at its center.
A spokesperson from the Greenwich Peninsula comments: “The trio of sculptures is intended by the Now Gallery to spark conversion and set the tone for the Design District, communicating its ongoing commitment to design, art and innovation”.
Lemos’ Tools of Endearment opens up a contemporary discourse about the role of femininity – both historically and in the current climate. These monumental sculptures simultaneously beautify and adorn the public space in which they occupy. The works open a contemporary discourse about the role of femininity – both historically and in today’s world. These monumental sculptures simultaneously beautify and adorn the public space in which they occupy.
As art critic Gelly Grintaki comments, “these ambiguous and enormous Lemos’ objects, a -literally- stiletto heel pump, a bra left on the floor and a corset-armor, all made of steel, could be seen as the remains of a giantess’ boudoir, leftovers of a goddess’ panoply after a fight, indicating the beginning of a post-feministic narrative about beauty, oppression and power. Gracious monuments of the possible, of a tangible present and a future under construction while the imaginary giantess-heroine is very much alive and strong. Kalliopi Lemos has been approaching women’s issues through the whole of her work with an exceptional sensitivity and specificity. Cohesive substance in her multidimensional artistic practice is her broad humanitarian vision. An authentic care for every otherness and an eagerness to give back the powerless her/his lost dignity. Her Woman captured in animal bodies, imprisoned mermaid, lost and desperate immigrant or fetishised female body, balancing between glorifying beauty and archetypal pain, is the eternal symbol of any marginal, repressed or subjugated being.
There is a witty antithesis’ game in Lemos’ sculptural idiom; between dimensions (a term of endearment is usually significant of something small and cute), material qualities (something that is supposed to be soft made by something hard) and space (the intimate place of a woman’s wardrobe challenging the urban landscape). The sculptural synthesis thus seems to open a peephole/rabbit hole in the public space-time, while questioning the male gaze and the sexual objectification over the intimacy and autonomy of the female body through centuries”.
Currently involved in a number of projects and public placements internationally, including her most recent participation at the Palais de la Porte Doree with her work Pledges, as well as her involvement with Spitalfields’ rolling art programme through her installation Wooden Boat with Seven People, Lemos’ work continues to participate within a visual sphere of knowledge, perception and awareness into a global narrative.
