The title of Olga's exhibition, Into the woods alone, is based on her uncle’s response when she announced that she would be travelling to remote villages in the mountainous region of Northern Greece, where her mother and father were born.
Here, in 2012, she undertook rigorous research, using a methodology akin to that of the modern anthropologist; using film, interviews, Vox Pop sound recordings and collecting artefacts from the region. She also returned to the town of her birth, in the Czech Republic, and undertook similar research, investigating personal and cultural identity.
Olga states, “The conceptual interests that shape my practice are based on my Czech/Greek Australian cultural idiosyncrasies and history. It is this framework that drives the investigation of identity and cultural realities outside the comfort zone of my familiar sphere. As a Greek-Australian, my work is irrevocably grounded in our nations’ history of representing ethnicity as well as my personal historical connection. Histories can be manipulated by what information is retained by the authority of the time, or how personal narratives are shared and documented. For political or personal reasons some histories are manipulated or hidden, like the Greek civil war or particular incidents of the white settlement of Australia. In my work I explore the hidden places of personal and collective histories, dwelling in particular in places where taboos and what Jung and Freud have called the 'collective shadow' of our consciousness. Because of my cultural heritage, what I understood to be normal and accepted is not what is accepted and normal in the culture that I have chosen as my home. So I spend lots of time exploring, questioning and satirising the places of difference. I’m trying to make sense of why I feel so misplaced...”
These investigations have produced an astounding exhibition of beautiful works. Text, extracts from conversations or words overheard, are engraved into polished black acrylic disks, images are embroidered onto blankets, words are gilded onto traditional Greek woven rugs, eerie photographs of poignant landscapes with X’s marked on the protective glass, hair and feathers are woven into antique frames, a glass sphere is loaded with her hair, and vessels have been carefully covered in old blankets and stitched and embroidered. The exhibition is loaded with layers of multicultural meanings and references, and underpinning all is the investigation of not only what it is to be displaced culturally, but what it additionally means if you are a woman and an artist.
Olga would like to acknowledge the financial assistance of the Department of Culture and the Arts for this project.
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- TURNER GALLERIES | showcasing contemporary art
at 470 WILLIAM STREET NORTHBRIDGE WESTERN AUSTRALIA 6003 - TURNER GALLERIES HAS NOW CLOSED.
This website is an archived record of the exhibitions and artwork shown at the gallery. - Turner Galleries acknowledges the Whadjuk Nyoongar people as the Traditional Owners of the lands and waters where Turner Galleries is situated, and pay our respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
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