Ah, This!
My studies in photography–“reading” and “writing”–began in France when I was already 25 years old. A late diagnosis of an “illness” that I seem to have developed young. There must be many who suffer from the same disease: being photographers without knowing it, tormented for a lifetime by a sensitive eye left unsatisfied, all because they never chanced to take a camera in their hands and gain consciousness of the power that hides behind their gaze. This kind of thing isn’t strange in Greece, where the language of photography is merely mumbled–we can’t really say that it’s articulated. I had to find myself in Paris to learn to read and write photographically!
– George Toukovasilis, excerpt from his text Self-Presentation, published in Zygos, May-June 1980
[There are joules, jewels, Julys]
Wherever you put a comma in a room, that’s its center. There are commas separating these photographs–like hot neurons or the quick change in feeling when you pass through a slice of shade. Punctuation is more liquid than you think. A walk is one sentence. The photographer places commas as she proceeds, the one she’s capturing pays attention or not at all; the sentence structure of their walk imitates the glowing fog of light it’s in; the commas dilate and become tiny heirs of this pictured friendship, its sleepy conduction through the street. One comma and she is nuanced–nubes, Latin for clouds–one more comma and she is a numen of light that has a tendency for sleep, another comma and arms, legs, and bellies dissolve either from heat or an extremity of glow.
– Penelope Ioannou, excerpt from her text accompanying Our Misfortune, Marietta Mavrokordatou’s exhibition at A Thousand Julys, Nicosia, 15 September–18 November 2022.
Am I completely derailed or did the anonymous one-sentence mention of Rapson’s show in New York magazine just turn into a poem? There is something contagious about these moments when Rapson starts editing references not to inflate their meaning and expose their arbitrariness but to suspend perception of the present, when this tiny two-dimensional world starts spinning to transgress into a soft, semi-hallucination carrying you somewhere else, I am thinking while listening to Drake melting his baritone range with the acoustic guitar, reaching out to us one last time before his overdose from antidepressants: “You know that I love you/You know that I don’t care/ You know that I see you/You know I’m not there.”
– Pujan Karambeigi, excerpt from Poets and Artfans, his review of Sarah Rapson’s 2019 solo exhibition Sell the House at Essex Street, New York, published in the December 2019 issue of Texte zur Kunst.
His painting, for example, orbits traditional genres (the male nude, the portrait, the still-life) at the same time that it gravitates towards typically homoerotic themes (the man in uniform, the satyr, the erectile phallus). These he approaches with a strong interest in the history of art, especially painting, and with reference to the “greats” of the western canon of his received art education. It is a lesson he has since decentred by conscientiously turning to women artists (to Marlene Dumas and Rosemary Trockell repeatedly), and to examples of artists from the supposed periphery–to the Greek painter Yannis Tsarouchis (especially), to the Cypriot painter Andreas Karayian (obsessively)–in the search for aesthetic articulations of (queer) desire.
[…]
I think of the sensuous washes of his brushwork as emulation of the murkiness of the technologically produced surface on the canvas, although I am aware that the liquid layers of paint are a metaphorical reference to bodily fluids–spit, sweat, sperm, tears–and part of his conscious attempt to debunk the significance of skill in painting and deviate from the demand for a highly finished result.
– Elena Parpa, excerpt from her text Notes on And leaned shoulder against the window, published on the occasion of Polys Peslikas’ solo exhibition at Radio Athènes, May-July 2023
Marietta Mavrokordatou (*1996, Nicosia, Cyprus, lives in London and Nicosia)
Polys Peslikas (*1973, Limassol, Cyprus, lives in London, UK)
Sarah Rapson (*1959 in London, UK, lives in Bridport, Dorset, UK)
George Tourkovasilis (1944—2021, lived in Athens and Paris)

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Marietta Mavrokordatou, Claudia 1-24, 2022, Series of 24 Silver gelatin prints, each 28 × 17,5 cm (11.024 × 6.890 in), Overall dimensions variable, Ed. 2/2 + 1 AP

Marietta Mavrokordatou, Claudia 1-24, 2022 (Detail), Series of 24 Silver gelatin prints, each 28 × 17,5 cm (11.024 × 6.890 in), Overall dimensions variable

Marietta Mavrokordatou, Claudia 1-24, 2022 (Detail), Series of 24 Silver gelatin prints, each 28 × 17,5 cm (11.024 × 6.890 in), Overall dimensions variable

Marietta Mavrokordatou, Claudia 1-24, 2022 (Detail), Series of 24 Silver gelatin prints, each 28 × 17,5 cm (11.024 × 6.890 in), Overall dimensions variable

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Playing Fashion Shoot 1-6), n.d., C-prints, 25,5 × 71,5 cm framed (12,4 × 9 cm each), 10.040 × 28.150 in framed (4.882 × 3.543 in each), Unique

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Marlboro), n.d., C-Print, 30 × 33 cm framed (8,6 × 12 cm), 11.811 × 12.992 in framed (3.386 × 4.724 in), Unique

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Marlboro), n.d. (Detail), C-Print, 30 × 33 cm framed (8,6 × 12 cm), 11.811 × 12.992 in framed (3.386 × 4.724 in)

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Picnic), n.d., C-Print, 30 × 33 cm framed (11,5 × 7,5 cm), 11.811 × 12.992 in framed (4.528 × 2.953 in), Unique

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Geraniums), n.d., C-Print, 30 × 33 cm framed (12,5 × 8,5 cm), 11.811 × 12.992 in framed (4.921 × 3.346 in), Unique

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Shampoo), n.d., Silver gelatin print, 19 × 28,5 cm (7.480 × 11.220 in), Unique

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Deep Sleep), n.d., Silver gelatin prints, 27,5 × 30 cm framed (12,5 × 18 cm), 10.827 × 11.811 in framed (4.921 × 7.087 in), Unique

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Contraposto & Pieta I, II), n.d., Silver gelatin prints, 24 × 52,5 cm framed (15 × 11 cm / 19 × 12,5 cm each), 9.449 × 20.669 in framed (5.906 × 4.331 in / 7.480 × 4.921 in each), Unique

George Tourkovasilis, N. Athens, 1995, Suite of 4 C-Prints, 32,5 × 22,5 cm framed (15 × 10 cm each), 12.795 × 8.858 in framed (5.906 × 3.937 in each), Unique

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (ice-cream), n.d., Silver gelatin print, 30 × 33 cm framed (12 × 8 cm), 11.811 × 12.992 in framed (4.724 × 3.150 in), Unique

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (ice-cream), n.d. (Detail), Silver gelatin print, 30 × 33 cm framed (12 × 8 cm), 11.811 × 12.992 in framed (4.724 × 3.150 in)

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Girl in jeans and chequered shirt), n.d., Silver gelatin print, 30 × 33 cm framed (12 × 7,5 cm), 11.811 × 12.992 in framed (4.724 × 2.953 in), Unique

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Modern Nijinski I, II), 1995, C-prints, 25 × 30,5 cm framed (15 × 10 cm each), 9.843 × 12.008 in framed (5.906 × 3.937 in each), Unique

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Flowers in whiskey glass & Ring), n.d., Suite of 6 C-Prints, 46 × 36 cm framed (11 × 8,7 cm each), 18.110 × 14.173 in framed (4.331 × 3.425 in each), Unique

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (from the TV series), n.d., Suite of 8 C-Prints, 48,5 × 36 cm framed (12 × 8,7 cm each) 19.094 × 14.173 in framed (4.724 × 3.425 in each), Unique

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

George Tourkovasilis, Untitled (Reclining Madonna), n.d., C-Print, 21,5 × 30 cm (8.465 × 11.811 in), Unique

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

left: Polys Peslikas, drunken, 2021, Ink on watercolour paper, 26 × 33,5 cm (10.236 × 13.189 in)
right: Polys Peslikas, down the gleaming sun goes down the earths glow, 2021, Ink on watercolour paper, 28,5 × 37,5 cm (11.220 × 14.764 in)

left: Polys Peslikas, Edvard's, 2021, Ink on watercolour paper, 28,5 × 37,6 cm (11.220 × 14.803 in)
right: Polys Peslikas, DOUBLE SUN, 2021, Ink on watercolour paper, 29 × 38 cm (11.417 × 14.961 in)

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Ah, This!, 2023, Curated by Helena Papadopoulos, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna

Sarah Rapson, Sufficient Fortune, 2002, Super 8 transferred to DVD, sound, 2:47 min, looped, Ed. 5 + 2 AP

Sarah Rapson, Sufficient Fortune, 2002, Super 8 transferred to DVD, sound, 2:47 min, looped, Ed. 5 + 2 AP

Sarah Rapson, Sufficient Fortune, 2002, Super 8 transferred to DVD, sound, 2:47 min, looped, Ed. 5 + 2 AP