Journey for an Exhibition (ii)
XI
Scotland ~ Brussels
· Jeu de Balle Flea Market
· Rue Blaes Antique Shops
With paintings delivered and exhibition installed, I collected further items and objects for the studio in Scotland and set off on my return journey to Greece. I took a different route, this time via Belgium so that I could visit Brussels and the Jeu de Balle flea-market. In late 2010 and 2011 I lived in Brussels, just ten minutes from this famous daily market. It was during this time that my love for gathering and use of found materials formed strong foundations. The vendors here mostly deal in house clearances and so you’ll find antique furniture alongside boxes of family photographs, collections of matchboxes, cameras, postcards, letters. I often wonder, when visiting markets like this, how it can be that there’s nobody to inherit these items? How boxes and albums of precious family history can be left out in all weathers for unknown tourists to rummage through. Just along from the market is the Rue Blaes, where every other shop is an antique shop. I spent a weekend ferrying bags of miscellanea between the market and my hotel.
XII
Brussels ~ Strasbourg
XIII
Strasbourg ~ Parma ~ Tivoli
I’m drawn to places with crumbling charm like Tivoli, just outside of Rome. I paint onto old doors and shutters, but I’m also inspired by peeling facades and faded paintwork. In my most recent abstract mixed-media paintings, my mark-making style aims to mimic these textures, informed by years of studying buildings like these close-up.
XIV
Tivoli ~ Ostuni
XV
Ostuni ~ Brindisi ~ Igoumenitsa
XVI
Igoumenitsa ~ Athens
I called this pair of blog posts Journey for an Exhibition in reference to Journey of an Artwork. That online exhibition describes the general creation process of an exhibition, from the flea-market to the studio, to the finished exhibition. These blog posts follow the delivery of an exhibition, and the gathering for another. In September 2024 I’ll present a solo exhibition in The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, using the materials gathered on this trip, and in America earlier this year.