Meet the artist-Vasilis Zarifopoulos
- Dimitra Gkoutzou
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
a. The Artist and the Self : Mental Health as a Lens
In a world where mental health issues are becoming more common, people find it easier to express their internal struggles through art. Vasilis Zarifopoulos is one of those artists who aim to raise awareness on mental health issues as a way to accept other aspects that shape the Self. Through studying Communication Design at the University of Aegean and Fine arts at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf he developed his own visual language to reflect on his experiences. His personal struggles and a series of events which concern other fellow friends or his family deeply affected him and was integrated into his artistic practice.
For this review, we will focus on his paintings which are made up of statements that could be questioned. By presenting beliefs that are considered normal/ abnormal, physiological/ pathological we gaze into his existential aporia. Then, we find ourselves questioning the co-existence and meaning of hallucination and imagination. Representing these binaries in a descriptive( textual and symbolic) way, he explores how he perceives and understands the everyday world through ready made artifacts/statements. Through treating artifacts/statements as readymades he challenges rational and non rational notions on mental states and unfolds the Self or even the experience Itself.
b. From thought to form: a view at Vasilis’ conceptual journey
b.1. The creative process
So how does he start to explore his mental states? His process begins with conceptual stimuli. He frequently reads scientific articles from prominent scientists such as Sagan, Tyson, Sapolsky or watches videos, etc. in order to state ethical dilemmas or complex emotional states. In other words, archives stimulate his imagination and challenge him to rationally reflect upon it. Through these archives, Vasilis emotionally regulates himself and begins to reflect on complex issues through other views. “I feel deeper when I rationalize my thoughts,” he said,an expression that resonates with his overall creative process and past works that addresses yet differentiates directly emotional states. From there, he documents these existential aporias through sketching on the PS program before reaching their final form. Deciding upon his artwork medium and final form he takes into consideration criteria concerning his budget and if he intends to engage directly with his audience, inviting reflection or shaping sensory experiences. That's why he embraces a variety of artistic expressions such as performance, photography or site specific art. In more recent works like Let Me Go, for example, he touches on bioethical dilemmas such as euthanasia that have affected people close to him by presenting a bright coloured yet empty space of a hospital with a bold textual phrase. That choice we could say is a carefully chosen one because often painting is used as a tool for introspection. Moreover, in any case each artistic expression becomes a site of collected thoughts and impressions that shape his internal world.
b.2. The influences
His internal world is expressed mostly in a textual manner that includes site specific paintings. His large-scale painting practice has been influenced by conceptual artists such as Sol LeWitt and Lawrence Weiner wall paintings, John Baldessari’s ironic text paintings and Mike Kelley’s lighthearted tone on dark themes that question normality. Additionally, in his latest exhibition They Told Me I Have the F29 Disease but I am Afraid of Flights at Living Room Athens, he is inspired by post-pop artists such as Damien Hirst. In Hirst’s case, mental health issues concerning authorship are criticized using commercial aesthetics. To sum up, these qualities are developed in the practices of his professors including Rita McBride played a big part in shaping his approach. Their painterly use of color and symbols, their treatment of space, all served as stepping stones for him. Not just in the image itself, but in the way an entire site can be curated into a work of art.
c. Art beyond the self: The role of spectrum, symbolism, and irony
c.1. Latest work
This painterly quality still resonates with his latest work but this time in a non autobiographical sense. Previously, he shared statements of his experience or the experience of people close to him. In his latest work, How do you feel today? Better? statements and colour symbols are used as parallels to present a spectrum of mental health and illness as mapped in Nostos Mental Health 2023. In this map, a spectrum of emotional states connected with our mental states is presented, raising awareness of our emotional states. With the prospect that mental health illness will someday be destigmatized, he incorporates symbolic elements such as the rainbow, often linked with LGBTQ+ identity to critique historical perceptions of mental illness and draws a parallel: that both queerness and mental illness have been framed through stigmas and binaries, but both actually exist on spectrums. Moreover, the rainbow’s euphoric color palette softens the seriousness of the topic conveying a more friendly atmosphere around the artwork. Through it, he invites the viewer to rethink how we define psychological states and emotional truths and embrace diversity.
c.2. Conveyed moods
This light hearted atmosphere accompanies almost all of his heavy loaded topics. This contrast produces an ironic tone that flirts with humour serving a gesture that challenges what we accept as real, true or rational. Such a gesture that challenged us was the scattering of pharmaceutical leaflets with DON’T READ IT printed on them. This print was a direct reference to something a psychiatrist once told him while discouraging him to follow his dreams. This kind of artistic gesture captures the dissonance between clinical experience and personal truth. It’s intimate, but also sharp, aiming to be critical of the mental health system and its power dynamics questioning authorship.
d. Art as a Collective Biography: The questioning of perception and volition
To sum up, Vasilis transforms his personal narrative and experience to a collective one and invites us to reflect upon mental health issues politically. Reflecting on his statements, questions arise and people are sensitized. But the most important part is when someone relates directly to mental health problems and inspires them to talk about them. In this case, we could describe this communication as a new kind of collective biography. Honest discussion with respect on sensitive matters shows how reality works and how we struggle to understand and perceive it through our senses. We learn that we are challenged to doubt reality’s nature because everyone copes with it in different ways. As a result, Zarifopoulos challenges our perception and focuses on what is considered true/false/fake or right/wrong. Through that he highlights the importance of the brain’s ability to shape our senses, behaviours, beliefs and overall identity. Through exploring the mental states we perceive that our understanding of our senses and memories is itself a journey of self-discovery. So, ready-made in Zarifopoulos’ sense are not everyday objects that are found in the material world but they are immaterial artifacts that are shaped by noticing / perceiving/ understanding and finally helps us evaluate the world around us. Interpretation and scientific methods are used to discover the world by questioning the nature of our own thoughts. Saying all these, we believe that Zarifopoulos' interpretive work could be used itself as an artifact to question our own thoughts and furtherly what it means to have will and volition.
Note: This text draws on conversations with Vasilis Zarifopoulos, whose insights helped to inform the review.
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