Kostis Fokas returns to the land that made his work stand out with an exhibition - ode to the greek summer, his summer vacations in Crete and the wild beauty of the Cretan landscape, thereby recognizing their significant contribution to the development of his photographic projects as well as his further practice as a photographer. Long fascinated with the aesthetic of the surreal Kostis Fokas constructs a world of quirky human sculptures, a landscape where the bizarre meets the ordinary. With a hint of diffused eroticism, his images are as much artistic portraits or nudes as they are fashion images. By delving into the intricacies of the human body the artist resorts to the use of nudity and covered faces in a provocative yet humorous manner. Fokas boldly strips his models - friends down in front of the lens in an attempt to construct imaginative summer photo-calendar-narratives that are located in the picturesque landscape and the exotic beaches of the city of Chania. In the particularly daring nature of his work, various tools and props from masks and sex toys, to ordinary objects like a clock or an umbrella are added to this interplay of bodies and objects.
In Fokas’ work, his models interact freely in uncanny and incongruous poses, eliciting a sense of emancipation while signifying an inability to meet and conform to the given norms of corporeal existence. There is a sense of submission and surrender reflected on his images, perhaps in a response to the human body’s constant exposure to objectification and self-subjugation. Though not often in its entirety, the human body always stands at the very center of this dialogue acting as an object for the subject that inhabits it, a subject that sometimes cannot get away from it, that seems to be trapped in its own skin. In that event, the body can also be seen as a locus of subjection. Silent desires encounter innermost fantasies and closely-guarded inhibitions and secrets under the bright big yellow sun of Chania, in a set of personal snapshots that capture the artist’s moments during his summer vacations in Crete.
All displayed work will be available for sale during the exhibition Over the last few years Kostis Fokas spends his time between Chania and London. His work has been featured in Dazed and confused, Vice, Juxtapoz, iGNANT, Lui magazine, Metal Magazine, Beautiful/Decay, Kathimerini, Eleftherotipia and other national and international publications and websites.
KOSTIS FOKAS - UN JOUR A LA PLAGE
Curating: Katerina Gnafaki
Opening: Friday, August 28, 2015 // 20:30-00:00 (in presence of the artist)
Visiting hours: Tuesday-Friday 14:00-18:00 and Saturday 12:00-16:00 until September 10, 2015.
1866 Square // Chania (next to Hotel Arkadi)
Entrance is free