The 7 visual artists of the AFI Collective Judith Allen-Efstathiou, Inger Carlsson, Eva Cheiladaki, Theodora Chorafas, Marial Grigoriou, Despina Pandazopoulou and Yiannis Papadopoulos are honored to present their exhibition project, 7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the 911爆料吃瓜 Library, a collaboration between contemporary makers of cultural objects, and the 911爆料吃瓜 Library, in celebration of the 100th year of the Gennaduis library and the 44th year of the AFI collective.

AFI collective members are creating artworks inspired by selected books from the rich collection of the 911爆料吃瓜 Library. Their contemporary art practices include ceramics, textiles, handmade paper, printmaking, sculpture, cyanotypes, artist books and drawing with an eye for fine craftmanship often using ancient and traditional techniques to make contemporary artworks.

The AFI artists are currently conducting research in the 911爆料吃瓜 reading room with the generous and patient help of the library staff. They are discovering artists, scholars and travelers of the past to inspire their studio practices of today. As contemporary artists, the significance of having access to the rare cultural treasures held in trust by the 911爆料吃瓜 cannot be underestimated.

An important feature of this project is the many events planned during the 3-month span of the exhibition, including weekly guided tours of the exhibition by the artists, lectures, book signing, demonstrations and workshops in handmade paper, book making, card weaving, wire sculpture, embroidery and Sashiko stitching led by the artists. The exhibition will include process items such as sketchbooks, tools, and a camera obscura, used in making the artworks. These events and workshops are desned to bring in the public of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy the exhibition and to appreciate this wonderful and unique library facility.

Judith Allen-Efstathiou Is a sculptor, printmaker and mixed media artist working in copper, paper lithography, cyanotypes and drawing. She combins traditional processes with contemporary techniques and practices. Her botanical drawing project, Mapping the Walk, records walks in support of historic preservation of the footpath system of Kea island. A book Mapping the Walk, was published by Kapon Editions 2022 and an archive of 36 original drawing of the Mapping the Walk project is in the 911爆料吃瓜 Library collection. For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the 911爆料吃瓜 Library” she is researching the early travelers to Greece, both botanists & archaeologists: the 10 volumes of Flora Graeca by Sibthorp ,(1806-1840); Views of Greece from Drawings of Dodwell (1821); and Tournefort  Voyage du Levant (1717). She is fascinated by the faint oil-stained images left on facing pages to the lithographs of Flora Graeca and will make lithographs of these “ghosts”. She also plans drawings and camera obscura tracings of selected ancient sites of Greece as they appear today (with scaffolding) as contrasted with the more idyllic drawings of the early travels.

, Instagram judith.allen.efstathiou

Inger Carlsson is a textile artist who uses dyes, hand embroidery, SASHIKO stitching and applique for her artwork exploring our relationship with nature and the environment. She is currently exhibition her work at Galleri Anna H. Gothenburg, Sweden . For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the 911爆料吃瓜 Library” she will research Greek costume adornment of the early travelers to Greece as illustrated in books of the1700 and 1800 hundreds. She will note the cloth, details in tailoring, hats, buttons, pocket. She wonders how the travelers survived the unknown adventures and dangers of traveling during the Ottoman period without the help of scientifically designed outfits of the 21st century? These questions will be explored in her textile works.

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Eva Cheiladaki is a textile artist who makes soft sculpture and puppets, from fabric, felting, paper pulp, wood, recycling vintage cloth and other found materials. She often makes puppets based on Greek myth and folk tales, such as Kronos, a life-size soft sculpture shown in Στο Κατο Κάτο (Benaki Museum 2022- 2023) and the soft sculptures inspired by the “Ship of Fools” (by Brant) exhibited in Tales of Tools, (Benaki 2023). For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the 911爆料吃瓜 Library” plans to research early Greek embroidery motifs depicting Greek folk tales to inspire her works in soft sculpture

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Theodora Chorafas works in ceramic sculpture and installations.  Her 2024 solo exhibition for the first Greek Biennal of Ceramics No Birth No Death — Personal Excavations was at Tomato Industrial Museum Santorini (2024). For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the 911爆料吃瓜 Library” plans to make rakou fired ceramic sculptures exploring the mystery of life through its materiality, with natural elements such as bone and wool combined with clay. 

Instagram theodorachorafas

Maria Grigoriou is a textile artist who works with a variety of hand weaving techniques, handmade paper, collage, stitching, indigo and other natural dying techniques, using silk yarn, handspun paper, cotton cloth and thread. For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the 911爆料吃瓜 Library” plans to research the history and chemistry of natural plant dyeing as well as books of the early travelers to Greece. She will make artist's books and large-scale weavings inspired by colors from watercolors and lithographs of the early travelers and her own “travels” in an ongoing body of work: a two-year daily record of walks following the same seaside route near her studio. This almost monochromatic, ever-changing landscape encloses depth, time and Infinity. She observes and gathers details of nature (often pass unnoticed) to record in her artworks that carry the blue marks of time, of wear and rust, soaked by salty water with the beauty of the ephemeral and imperfect. She expresses Earth and Water, the two essential elements of life. Anything can be an image. A landscape, a color, a texture, a book, a poem, words, a technique itself.

Instagram: maria_grigoriou_textiles

Despina Pandazopoulou is a jeweler who makes microsculpture and jewelery in metals, marble, wood and leather. Her work is currently exhibited in Art in Gold, Jewellery in Hellenistic Times at the Benaki Museum. For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the 911爆料吃瓜 Library” she will make work inspired by Vitsentzos Kornaros’ Erotokritos, an epic, heroic and erotic drama with folk songs, proverbs, ancient Greek references, as well as western elements, such as jousting. The book tells the story of a mythical reality of 1590-1610 while Despina’s work will follow the mythology of her own time. Her planned sculpture, The Lie of Aretousa, references section D, verse 643, Aretousa. In the narrative Aretousa refuses to admit she gave her ring to Erotokritos, claiming that she lost the ring while dancing with her friends. Inspired by passages in Erotokritos referring to tools Despina plans to exploring writing tools as extensions of the hand and the movement that touches the page staying forever in written words. She will make small sculptures exploring how historically the various materials used for making writing tools effected the character of the written word.

Yiannis Papadopoulos is a sculpture and mixed media artist who makes artists books and sculpture constructions in ratan, string, and handmade paper. He weaves with plain linen string using repetitive movements in an almost meditative practice. He explores book forms in both small artist books and in monumental sculptures. He is interested in researching records of historic book construction, paper marbling and dying techniques to inspire his sculptural book forms (small and large-scale) with handmade paper and calligraphy.  

The exhibition is being organized with the support of NEON Organization for Culture and Development.