Stella Bakatsi

We went to the Stella Bakatsi exhibition two weeks ago and I have been postponing writing about it as I felt that my photographs would not do it justice, but there is no sense in putting it off any longer... Bakatsi is a ceramicist who has moved away from making vessels to making small identical pieces which she then uses to stage huge installations. The exhibition I saw a few years ago was stunning, and I have been following her development ever since.

This exhibition was staged at the old observatory and the mobile of rocks and crystalls at the entrance is interesting and fun.



The main, domed observatory room  is where the exhibition is housed, and the first thing you see is this huge installaion on the floor of thousands of used  microbiological slides. She says she has always been interested in the world of Genetics and its constant revelations, in the cell, in the molecule...

And a closer look

The rest of the exhibition is all  around the room and consists of huge panels made of wire where small, mostly identical ceramic pieces are attached. It is difficult to describe the effect, sometimes when looking from a distance they look like abstract paintings, but most of the time, they just  look  like themselves and I cannot define them...

A close look

An intricate pattern



and a closer look

I love the wavy effect of this one, seen partly from the side





These reminded me of swimming sperm



An overview

Floating sperm again, in a different pattern



Very tightly packed



So many different shapes and patterns  she has used...

A lot of wire on this one

Another partial side view



A bit of colour



Spikey