Sorogas
Since his student years, Sotiris Sorogas has been concerned with the idea of decay; ruins, rust, ruined fishing boats are the cherished permanent subject matter of his work, particularly over the last years.
The exhibition at Citronne Gallery focuses on his most recent work. The artist renders driftwood, wrecked boats, broken planks placed in the sand, or on rocks at boatyards - always near water. The palpable decay and deterioration of the materials symbolise time that passes and life that decays.
The scattered, useless, broken and worn fragments come out of their environment and are placed in the centre, on large canvases. They are presented emphatically, close up, as the result of meticulous observation and detailed rendering. The range of colours is limited: black, grey, rusty brown in contrast to the blinding white background. In addition, the traces of blue between the objects and the background suggest the presence of the sea. The photographic realism and characteristic spotless style of the canvas add to the image the feel of a document which intensifies with the literal descriptive nature of the title. These elements contrast with the poetic nature of the works and transform the represented objects into symbols. A moulded feeling of melancholy, a deep silence dominate as the monumental objects function as references to the passing of time - even to death. This dreamlike atmosphere gives them a metaphysical dimension.
Sorogas’ first exhibition in 1972 was dedicated to the poet Giorgos Seferis as his “poetry is spare, charged, and has a rare conceptual and expressive density... coexistence of grandeur and poverty, the eternal and the perishable, the timeless and the boundless, with the suffocatingly closed space of today...”.
Forty years later, Seferis comes back and marks this latest exhibition.
