Petros Chrisostomou

Petros Chrisostomou photographs small-scale, ordinary, ephemeral objects in architectural models that he constructs himself, and then dramatically arranges, often employing lighting and staging conventions of the theater. With the alteration of scale and reversal of the relation between object and environment, between imaginary and real space, his photographs challenge the viewer's visual certainties. The illusionary effect he achieves highlights the artist's playful approach, which fluctuates between mimicry of the real world and construction of a surreallistic reality.

Christosomou's photographs become the field for mixing the high- and the low-brow, mass culture and genre painting, the luxurious and the expendable, as indications of social class distinctions. At the same time, the relations between the real and the imaginary in his oeuvre are a commentary on the mediated images of contemporary mass media that distort the natural and immediate dimension of our relation to reality, determining, among other things, the conditions for viewing and receiving art.

Courtesy Tina Pandi, Curator, EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens