LONDON.- On January 11 the Corfu-based artist, Eva Caridi, opened her first solo show in London, at Ambika P3, University of Westminster. This exhibition is a monumental installation made of two labyrinths. The first is in the Cretan fashion with a one-way path leading to the core where there is a video projection. The second is a deconstructed labyrinth with a path through iron blocks with 20 unique life-sized plaster human sculptures, each about 1.6 meters in height, positioned along the way.
The installation stages a representation of time as a human condition. There are no dead ends, no illusions, but only constant walking ahead in one direction. The visitor proceeds through the corridor surrounded by iron walls, and sound flows from the labyrinth’s depths compelling one to continue the journey. The path culminates in the artwork’s core: a space in between walls that hosts a video installation depicting females in their three stages of life: girl, woman and elderly lady. During the course of our life we tend to lose connections with the child part of ourselves and memories are locked in the secret alleys of our soul.
The second room features a deconstructed labyrinth filled with nude human sculptures frozen in multiple body positions. The artist says that the plaster sculptures resemble the fragility of human nature when it comes up against the impenetrable iron walls of the labyrinth, which in this case symbolizes the world and reality that we live in . Ms Caridi is intimately involved with her creations, and she tries to establish a bond with the public. Plaster and iron are the means to a sensorial experience and their molding quality makes into almost living beings that speak to us.
Ms Caridi’s monumental interactive installation unwinds over a floor surface of around 14,000 square feet, and the walking distance is about 75 meters from the entrance to the central area. The walls are about 2.4 meters high, and the labyrinth uses about 11 tons of steel. It is made by S & W Limited, based in the Midlands, and will take about five days to install.
“The labyrinth is used as a symbol to represent a threedimensional feeling, to concretise feelings. It forces you into a pilgrimage, a journey through time. People lose track of direction and of the outside world, ascending towards a personal state of mind. Despite feeling confused and lost, one finds the way to the end which is, in fact, just the beginning. ” Eva Caridi
Eva Caridi is a Greek–English artist who lives and works between the UK and the island of Corfu in Greece. She was educated and trained in Paris where she graduated from the Academy Julienne. Since 1997, she has exhibited her works in the art world’s most prominent cities – Paris, New York, and San-Paolo. She has participated in and won awards at prestigious shows such as the Cairo, Florence and Alexandria Biennales.
