What are they after,
Our Souls,
Travelling on rotten, sea water-soaked timbers
From harbour to harbour?
Giorgos Seferis (Mythistorema)
Sea Timber, Sotiris Sorogas,
at the B & M Theocharakis Foundation, Vassilisis Sofias, Athens.
Driftwood, wrecked boats, broken pieces of wood found on the sand, ruined fishing boats - the palpable decay and deterioration of the objects depicted in this series of paintings symbolise time that passes and life that decays. These almost monochromatic and fragmentary compositions on a white background are occasionally broken by a small splash of colour, usually blue, which suggests the presence of the sea.
Time and decay, Sorogas' favourite themes continue in this series of paintings.
'The subjects that I choose are those that are close to loss, to the dying... thus, by depicting all these, I am declaring my sympathy for them....
'I am trying to deal with this subject - not the boat or caique in its entirety, but a part it, a fragment of it, which is already wrecked, often making it hard to tell where this piece of timber came from and which suggests the distant presence of a vessel that used to travel in the open sea and now lies deserted on a shore'.
His
Old Pieces of Timber in a Spetses Boatyard (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Old Boat, Avdiron Beach (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Old Timber Near the Sea, (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Old Blue Boat, (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Old Boat, Avdiron Beach, (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Two images of a wrecked boat in Vistonida (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Old Boat, (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Old Boat, Avdiron Beach, (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Burnt Boat in Lavrion, (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Burnt Boat in Lavrion, (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Burnt Boat in Lavrion, (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Pulley in Ierissos (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Pulley in Ierissos (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
Old Timber by the Sea, (charcoal and acrylic on canvas)
An interesting subject, despite it being (almost) a cliché. I'm not sure if I don't prefer photographs, however. Thought-provoking, as ever, Eirene.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen Jessica's Nature Blog - for example this post which I thought of when I read yours above: https://natureinfocus.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/re-appearance-of-a-rhossili-wreck/
I see what you mean about preferring photographs - that post of Jessica's is wonderful, and thanks for introducing me to her blog. I do quite like his paintings, and I always look out for exhibitions of his work - before he started on boats, it was ruined houses, something you find a lot in Greece and I guess that's what it is that I like: it feels very Greek to me and I quite like the idea of painting decay.
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