Artworks

Deyana Stareva

Descriptive information

Type of artwork: Drawing
Material(s) & Technique(s): Mixed technique, acrylic paint and pastels
Dimensions: 21cm x 29.7cm
Year: 2021
Location: Spetses island, Greece

Technical information

Digitisation of artwork: Panagiotis Diapoulis
Equipment used: Cameras: Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 6D | Camera Type: DSLR | Lenses: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
Image processing software: Adobe Photoshop 22.4 (Windows)

License

Reuse this file under the terms of the license Creative Commons Attribution – ShareAlike (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How to cite this image

“Traditions in Transition (23/30)”. 2021. Artist: Deyana Stareva. Source: ECHO II website. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

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About this artwork

Visual Diaries is a research art project conducted during a one-month art residency on the Greek island of Spetses. During my stay, I have been collecting, archiving and memorising stories inherent to the island and the local way of life, in the format of visual diaries with notes and sketches. Four notebooks and thirty drawings are the visual collection and outcome of the project. The number of the drawings mirrors the time spent on the island.

The drawings deal with the topic of traditions in transition and explore the antithesis of the transient and the non-transient. The transient is represented by the diverse elements and characteristics of the place such as the people, rituals, architecture, materials, objects, flora and fauna. A characteristic of the island is that it has always been present in the historical events of the Argolida Bay. It has witnessed Venetian and Ottoman rule, Russian-led revolts, as well as the current tourists’ and visitors’ fluxes. The sea is the non-transient element and the main storyline of the project. It has been depicted with a continuous blue acrylic line with a certain thickness, density and presence on the paper. It is repetitive, stable and almost banal in its chromatic expression. In contrast, the stories are very colourful and dynamic. They report traditional anecdotes, existing places and personal memories of the island, with a sequence and a representational method that unifies and confounds each narrative subject, thus creating a seamless transition. Indeed, if a specific colour tone characterises each different narrative subject, the colour grading enables an uninterrupted reading. Therefore, the project aims to research the connection between the sea and its surrounding history, faces and narratives.

Deyana Stareva