Have you ever experienced a place so memorable, which has become so prominent in your psyche, that you neither

want to nor are able to forget it? For me Greece has this significance. In my life, daily, I am surrounded by things, which act as a direct link to times and places, like a visual shorthand for what Greece means to me. I believe that when my work is successful people form associations with it on a subconscious level as well as recognising the more obvious meanings in the work. I dont see myself as a 2D or 3D artist but work instinctively with a substance. I want my art to function on numerous levels. In a sense it is literal and uses readymades like Greek coffee, traditional furniture and kitchenware as well as things like casts of family members hands and classical Greek columns. I also, however, want to use and trigger subconscious associations and for this I work aesthetically with various materials, such as clay, gloss paint, fabrics, latex, mod roc and cardboard. Sigmund Freuds Beyond the Pleasure Principle heightened my interest in using objects and materials from meaningful places and I have recently begun to exhibit and document my art back in that location. Using mod roc to cast family members body parts allows me to reference relationships. In one piece a cast of my fathers hand with an extended middle finger is also a reference to Maurizio Cattelans piece L.O.V.E and the current financial predicament in Greece as Cattelan exhibited his piece outside the financial building in Milan. Having attended the 2012 turner prize at the Tate Britain I was struck by the way Luke fowler merged memories and the present together through film. He seems to comment on how his relationship with individuals and society changes through time. I would like people to feel this way eventually about my work when looking at it. The British Museum fascinates me as it evokes nostalgia and feelings of dislocation simultaneously, sometimes in the actual statues through their missing limbs but mainly in the separation between the exhibits and their place of origin, looking at the classical Greek exhibits has definitely fuelled my ideas. Charles Averys hybrids and headpieces such as The Solipsist inspire me to combine materials and references in pieces. Rebecca Warren, Roni Horn, Zhang Xiaogang and Michelangelo Pistoletto also motivate me. The way I see and perceive objects and even life as a whole has changed since studying fine art and I find sections of Ways of seeing by John Berger and Traces of Modernity by Dan Smith captivating in terms of perceptions and work.

I believe progressing to university is essential to my growth as an artist. It will drive me to improve my practice in a new creative environment in which I can share and develop ideas with fellow students and staff and make full use of the universitys facilities. I hope to rethink and reinvent my practice and whole artistic approach.