THE DIVIDING LINE

Corinth (GR), 2022

The Corinth Canal is an artificial canal in Greece that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea to the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland, effectively turning the peninsula into an island. In ancient times, several attempts to dig a canal failed. It was not until the second half of the 19th century that the project was again initiated. In 1893, the 6.4 kilometre long and 24 metre wide canal was completed, but today it is too narrow for many modern ships.

A work from this series is covered with a woven net of PVC tubes filled with seawater collected from the Corinth Canal. Behind this net, a pane of glass is partly masked with geometric motifs and then a mirror is mounted at the back. When the viewer moves, the mirror can be seen to reflect a black-and-white satellite photo of the canal and an old three-dimensional picture frame with a shadowy landscape image of Corinth from the early 19th century. This effect is the result of mounting the landscapes and the frame on the back surface of the abstract form affixed to the glass pane. Front and background surfaces, abstraction and the mirrored, landscape motif all merge into a complex, shifting image.