IRINI MIGA

An anti-monumental point for sustainability and creative reuse of the built environment.
For this work I dug a tiny hole in the wall and inserted a hand-made ceramic cone. The exact drywall dust that was produced from that extraction was kept and placed in that carved hole. A minor edifice as an intervention with a single point of entry to a space where an extraction transcends to physical transformation and reuse.

My “Untitled” poem as a chain of events that culminate in the transformative moment “when a word becomes an image and an image becomes a word.”

With this work I examine ways that literary structures could be translated into topological interventions in the physical space and the precariousness of these kind of transitory moments. The work starts as an empty page on a wall. During the opening the poem is written on the wall by a visitor/performer. Few days before the show closes the visitor/performer comes back and erases the poem. The show closes with the erased poem on the wall.

“Untitled”
by Irini Miga

A drop of water that creates a ripple
A ripple that creates a sound
A sound that echoes a thought
A thought that carves into a memory
A memory that simulates reality
A reality that feels monochromatic
A monochrome that reflects an image
An image that becomes the self
The self that carries the body
The body that renders into color
The color that offers the light
The light that transcends into infinity
The infinity that collapses into a moment,
the moment that a word becomes an image
and an image becomes a word.

With my work I aim to create a new timeline: a timeline that exists in parallel to the reality of the physical space. Borrowing the term timeline from the video editing software “Premiere”, I create works that materialize specific moments in time. Thus I create vessels of time, or just a few prolonged seconds, as the viewer can ‘drag’ the time to any point they want.

This installation is a contemplation on time, space and personal memory. It points to the fragmentary nature of memory as I tried to recreate my apartment in Athens, Greece by memory. No exact dimensions, no exact materials; just an imprint of memory that aims to balance various moments.

Time has stopped momentarily. The person that was working on the recreation of the space just left; tools and phone are on the floor. The paint roll is in mid-movement on the wall. Small elements are in a precarious balance. All of these tools and elements are meticulously hand crafted ceramic pieces giving cues for specific spaces in the apartment.

A balancing act of materials and thoughts during the moment that a personal memory is translated into an object in space.

Drawing from the importance of Bauhaus ideas in today’s socio-political turmoil, I view Shifting Points as a point of convergence. A composition, an abstracted version of the Bauhaus logo designed by Oskar Schlemmer in 1922, brings together moments of painting, drawing, sculpture, design, and architecture.

The shadows of objects echo the sculpture’s various dimensions, creating a dialogue between the 2D and 3D. The elements that meet in the sculptural ‘points’ of mergence are recreated design tools (ceramic distorted triangles); a ceramic reproduction of bolt from the Drawing Center’s basement column; a yellow sticky-note with a recreation of a doodle drawing I designed in Photoshop and later on projected and traced pointing to the new ways of drawing in our Internet era, a photo-print on a piece of fabric of a cracking wall that has been painted white numerous times, and the marks on the wall are a recreation of the leftovers of my color mixing palette.

This performative piece translates the musical score “Visionary Landscapes” by the American composer Alan Hovhaness into a visual “landscape.” For this work I invited a pianist to play from memory the piece “Visionary Landscapes” on the wall with his fingers dipped in ink. As if the music could acquire an image, I divided the colors on the pianist’s fingers in a way that a “landscape” appeared when he started playing it on the wall. The colors that were used – dark green, red earth, raw umber, carbon black, two different hues of blue, and cadmium yellow – created a visualization of the skyline and the soil on the wall. This was an excerpt of the piano piece “Visionary Landscapes.” The duration of the piece was determined by the paints’ moisture.

I invited a pianist to play from memory the piece “Visionary Landscapes” by the American composer Alan Hovhaness on the wall with his fingers dipped in ink. As if the music could become an image, I divided the colors on the pianist’s fingers in a way that a visual landscape appeared when he started playing it on the wall. The colors that were used – dark green, red earth, raw umber, carbon black, two different hues of blue, and cadmium yellow – created a visualization of the skyline and the soil on the wall.

Pianist performed excerpt from Visionary Landscapes by Alan Hovhaness, played from memory with fingers dipped in ink (pianist Brian Daurelle)

Dimensions variable,

2017

exhibited at:

Marginalia, curated by Lisa Sigal and Nova Benway, The Drawing Center, New York, NY

Handmade ceramic recreation of an object that has lost its use value, stands alone on the wall as a fragile moment. The sun that hits it from the window at different times of the day turns it into a solar clock. The marked shadows indicate the install times of my other pieces in the show and my breaks that day during the install.

Almost an accidental spot on the wall– something that might have been removed abruptly and left a defect on the wall. On the contrary, this is a diffraction of an actual place, a carefully marked spot, drawn and carved from my hometown’s map with a handmade ceramic push-pin marking the center. An incised outline of my hometown in Greece as a mark of the past, on and off the wall.

Marks of time create a choreography of moments on the wall. I choose everyday objects that have minimum monetary value and high personal value. I gather information, paraphernalia from places that I live(ed), actual facts and facts distorted by memory. In that way a wall becomes the canvas of different moments in time.

A pencil with white engraved letters “Waiting for a phone call” is stuck on the wall, on its tip, in a precarious balance after it completed a doodle drawing. It encapsulates a real moment in time and transforms a thought into a object. 

With my work I aim to crete a new timeline; a timeline that exists in parallel to the reality of the physical space. Borrowing the term “timeline” from the video editing program ‘Premiere’, I create works that bring into flesh specific moments in time. I choose everyday objects that have minimum monetary value and invest in them high personal value. Thus I create vessels of time, or just few prolonged seconds, as the viewer can ‘drag’ the “time” in any point they want.

Marks on the wall point to a band-aid that holds wires. These are wires from a broken iPhone charger mixed with thin brass – a material that I use in my practice. This piece – a phone-aid provider – is in dialogue with my pencil piece “Waiting for a phone call.”

Tomorrow’s Dream

Jay Glass Dubs, Haris Epaminonda, Shannon Finley, Thomas Geiger, Irini Miga, Sarah Schönfeld, Yorgos Stamkopoulos, Panos Tsagaris

curated by Daily Lazy

26.01 – 01.04.2018

Neuer Essener Kunstverein
Essen, Germany

Selections

Anthony Giannini, Leslie Jimenez, Irini Miga, Ronny Quevedo

curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah

January 27 – March 10, 2018

Elizabeth Dee Gallery
New York, USA

Imperceptible

Daniel Cerrejón, Irini Miga, and Claudia Peña Salinas

curated by Xavier Acarín

November 25 – December 26, 2017

Abrons Arts Center
New York, USA

Scraggly Beard Grandpa

Weiyi Li, Yunyu “Ayo” Shih, Xinyi Cheng, Rania Ho, Wang Wei, Taro Masushio, Ali Van, Casey Robbins, Zheng Yuan, Seon Young Park, Irini Miga, and João Vasco Paiva

Curated by Cici Wu, assembled by Wang Xu, co-founders of PRACTICE

November 4 – December 22, 2017

Capsule Shanghai
Shanghai, China

Good Weather Presents:
The Best Is The Least We Can Do

Aaron Blendowski, IanJones, Irini Miga, Willie Wayne Smith, Katie Wynne

curated by Good Weather

August 26 – October 29, 2017

Atlanta Contemporary
Atlanta, USA