Pollyxenia Joannou

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VACANT POSSESSION

When an artist takes the initial step in the creative process, a form of vacant possession ensues, be it the possession of a pristine piece of paper, a canvas, a blank musical score sheet or a space for a performance. But when Pollyxenia Joannou strides into that arena a more profound commitment claims a permanence akin to squatters’ rights where an ownership is claimed and a vacant space is populated by familiar symbols and, in her case, a series of selective colourful geometric speculations.

The deceptive simplicity of a tilted ladder or an empty chair are images that sit beside works on canvas or folds of felt that simultaneously explore notions of presence and absence. But, within these works, there is an ambiguous element at play and a vacant possession describes that moment between occupation and void, between visual noise and silence. Where geometry and engineering form the basis of an immediate visual impact within her work, the underlying choice of light and darkness establishes an aesthetic that delves more deeply into meditations on the emotions of colour and composition.

In the artist’s words … “I seek in my work a quiet corner. The work provides a pause or a resting place before moving on. I try and achieve this through colour palette, a balance of aesthetics via shapes, line, repetition, and materiality”….

Walk down the streets of Paris through the paintings of Pollyxenia Joannou and find the profound influence of the contemporary architecture of Renzo Piano, Jean Nouvel, and George Henry Pingusson. Her work approaches the work of modernist and contemporary architecture with the assurance that a shared visual language exists between the cast shadows of monumental statements and the negative spaces that exist at the heart of her own compositions. Indeed, the iconic sawtooth warehouse rooftop designs that are so familiar throughout the industrial landscapes of Sydney are treated with the same reverence as these mavericks from the world of contemporary architecture.

Those same compositional deliberations eventually find an uneasy resting place in the anonymity of a figure thoughtfully positioned and intersecting the horizon. Mathematical symbols, that form the basis of architecture and geometry, cease to find their purpose in the algebra of Pollyxenia Joannou where the equals sign has the same purpose and potency of a ladder, where the anonymous figure is neither present nor absent.

Finally, the vacant possession of “Safe”, a house constructed from layers of felt, a seemingly simple shape with a complex symbolic message. What do those layers stand for and what do they mean? What do these folded layers of felt cushion us against or is this an assurance that the domesticity of the felt house continues through to the warmth of the rectilinear “Red House”?

Pollyxenia Joannou proffers and endless series of ambiguities that combine the palette of an artist who is devoted to and enthralled by the emotional mysteries of colour.

Vacant Possession is a well-placed exhibition at the CBD Gallery in the centre of Sydney where the race against time amongst some of Sydney’s iconic architecture demands of us to stop, look and contemplate a more profound interpretation of our existence through the work of Pollyxenia Joannou.