They say that when something is “destined” to happen, then eventually all the pieces will fall into place. That’s exactly what happened in the case of Theodora Vasileiadou, a visual artist based in Athens, Greece. Growing up, her main focus was in competitive swimming -an aspect that deeply influenced her subsequent life and by default her art practice-, but she did have “an inclination for sketching” as she tells me, a raw ‘talent’ that was simmering beneath the surface and waiting to be awakened and explored. Eventually, that talent came to fruition and she was admitted to study at Athens School of Fine Arts, where she started exploring her own limits -literal and figurative- while discovering her practice and ways to communicate it.
Observing her work, you will immediately be faced with an explosion of movement, the formations of colour creating their own “dances” and performing their unique sequences right in front of your eyes. Water-like structures -an ideal way to balance her two burning passions- with varied shades of blue that create their own little worlds that everyone can search and find a piece of themselves inside them. Besides, Theodora aspires and invites everyone to try and give their own interpretation of her works, she views their deciphering as a collective “project”. “My work is a medium to communicate my thoughts and feelings that is not so easy to express with words. I aspire to encourage each viewer in giving their own meaning and make it a part of them” she advocates.
Water is one of the fundamentals of life; and as the liquid element by itself is life-giving in so many ways, it helped her to understand her own inner thoughts and feelings; she uses the very nature of the water -flexible and transparent- to accommodate everyone to view and explore their own inner truth. She sees the water as a way of escaping reality and coming closer with her own inner being, “water is used as a diary, a way to keep track of my emotions and I hope the spectator can use it as such”. The size of her paintings is anything but random as it has a crucial role: the majority of them being large scale helps in the aspect that her paintings “feel” alive and present, the physicality that is achieved is obvious. The viewer can sense them as they sometimes can almost feel like they are “encircling” you.
Her inspirations come from varied activities and interests like theatrical plays, avid travelling, exploring the works of other artists etc. Although, for the time being, she mainly uses painting as her medium to express her artistic practice; she constantly explores new ways to portray it with that being photography, installation and more recently performance art. Regarding her exploration about performance, she has in the works her first performing act and she is particularly excited to find out the ways the human body can express itself and present as opposed to a painting. The main goal is to observe how the absence of limits, the fluidness will play out in contrast to the physical reminders and “limitations” of the human body.
I don’t know what the future holds but I am sure that we can expect many more interesting projects and artistic explorations from Theodora and be sure to check out her work if in Athens, as she is participating -along other various upcoming artists- in ‘’Emerging Voices’’ by Thalatta.art, in the 31st of March until the 2nd of April at Technopolis and in ‘’Between Senses’’ by G. Gounaropoulos Museum!
Check out Theodora's work:
By Despina Makrogianni - Art Historian.
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