In her new solo show, entitled ‘yes is a world’ at Iris Gallerie, photographer Ellie Tsatsou presents a new series of handmade cyanotypes, created between Athens & London in 2019.
Sequential to her Moon Series, part of which was presented in her previous solo exhibition in the gallery, Ellie is now drawing her focus on auto-luminescent sources of energy. Through the use of photographic chemicals, she studies the light-sensitivity of her printing surfaces and the depth of her materials, producing results that float across the spectrum of cyan and blue. In partnership with the sun, Ellie brings forth its vigor and grace.
Visually, the works explore variations of the circular shape and consequently, the embedded notions of flow and continuity. This specific project stands as a new creative chapter for the photographer, in which she works with forms inspired by the realms of painting, to embrace the elements of water and air, and to bring her artworks alongside her digital world. This gentle approach to printmaking comes hand in hand with the use of delicate papers from Japan, Tibet, Nepal and India, and in conjunction with works linen and papyrus. Each cyanotype is unique and made entirely as a collaboration of the hand and the sun.
In dialogue with a hands-on approach to the creative process, this exhibition also explores in action the co-relation of intuition and creativity, which stands at the core of Ellie’s theoretical research. The simplicity of her (photo)writing, the minimal patterns, the abstract interaction of light with the figurative motifs as well as the use of natural primary equipment — they all communicate the gentle conversation between the artist and the artwork, as well as the devotion and trust practiced by the former to the latter.
Finally, the title of the exhibition, which derives from the poem of e.e. cummings ‘love is a place’ wishes to envelop a spiritual and emotional wholeness in the arms of the world, as well as in an essence of synergy within and with it.
yes is a world & in this world of yes live (skillfully curled) all worlds
Ellie Tsatsou (b.1987, Athens GR) is a photographer & interdisciplinary artist whose work explores wonder, notions of home, and intuition — mainly through the use of digital & analogue photography, film, editing and writing. Her practice focuses on peace and presence; it places emphasis on relationships between human & nature and forms a quest to manifest creative living in the everyday.
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