Emilia Bantouna finds herself suspended between a romantic/intuitive approach to art and a classical/conceptual one. This exhibition was comprised largely of two groups of work: papier-mâché pieces, upon which an image is inscribed, and works in which found objects, sand, and other media are employed. Essential to Bantouna’s work is the actual physical process, the tactile contact with the object. Her commitment to the work process and to the metamorphosis she allows to take place in this process constitutes a loose link to an attitude common among artists in the ’50s.
Conversely, the conceptual element in her work is evident in the metaphorical transfer which she imposes on the objects and materials used. Her works are highly ambiguous, poetic, and at times replete with religious significance. This is especially evident when she incorporates in a work small found objects of iron and wood, as in Figure (all works, 1989). The incorporated objects are strongly reminiscent of Cycladic representations of the fertility goddess; in Bull, the object recalls a Cretan minotaur Bantouna’s small object-figures, set in their new context, take on a pristine and imposing spirit of archaic purity that engenders feelings of reverence and veneration.
In the papier-mâché works, wood is presented in its natural and its recycled states. Bantouna alludes to technology, as well as to the ever-recurring cycles in nature, while also underlining the importance of the works’ physicality and of the materials’ authenticity. This latter element is further emphasized by the natural tones—beige, gray, and brown—that predominate. The imagery and themes are based on certain archetypal symbols, such as the arrow, the circle, and the spiral. Bantouna instinctively responds to the arrow, which she claims directs her in her compositions, ultimately leading her back to the point of her departure. The arrow turns in on itself and is transformed into a circle or a spiral, as in Spiral Arrow. By their very simplicity, these small and intense works manifest a striking intuitive power.
—Catherine Cafopoulos
