Voyage to Venus

Ariana Papademetropoulos, 2019

Artist
Ariana Papademetropoulos

Title
Voyage to Venus

Date
2019

Medium
Digital video shot in 35mm ectachrome film duration 2.57’

Dimensions
Dimensions variable

Shot on the Greek island of Milos the first scene is of the artist asleep on a bed washed up on the shore, the white rocks offering a dramatic backdrop. The film showcases Ariana Papademetropoulos floating in a bed in the sea, a vision she had in her mind for long.
The comfort of the bed is counteracted by its displacement and the abyss which lies below, the boundaries of the domestic become tested in this new landscape. Nature has triumphed and taken over, the floating bed wanders ungoverned at the mercy of the waves and the wind.
Duality, myths, archetypes, facades and varying realities are explored in Papademetropoulos work. Water is also a recurrent theme in her practice. The floating bed paired with the water poured onto images in her paintings, as if everything’s sinking and going into another dimension.
Papademetropoulos often draws inspiration from the deep sea and the creatures that inhabit it, real or mythological including sea shells and fish. With a nymph like presence in this film, the artist resembles a Nereid, the sea nymph often associated with the Aegean Sea. These deities symbolise everything that is beautiful and kind about the sea and the importance of its preservation.