Olga Migliaressi-Phoca
Olga Migliaressi-Phoca (born 1981, lives and works in Athens) creates narratives that reflect popular culture of today and echo current viewpoints and attitudes of western society. In her text-based works, she turns iconic logos and familiar signs of everyday vocabulary into thought-provoking plays of words and reflections of gender, identity, visual representation, and the interplay between subject and object. Recognizable, familiar signs that have become a mundane part of everyday vocabulary become transformed into a novel narrative.
The booth features 11 pieces from the ongoing series “The Future Is Vague”. Each work presents a beauty issue of the fictional ‘Vague magazine’ in a specific country. The works touch on issues of gender identity and (in)equality and examine the position of women in contemporary society, reflecting on the stereotypes of female beauty ideals around the world and commenting on society’s expectations of women. Drawing on the genre of portraiture, the mirror works feature stylized depictions of body parts based on notebook scribbles. To create her mirror works, the artist uses professional glass techniques, using acid to create a new patina on each mirror pane before scratching, engraving and painting the glass. Migliaressi-Phoca uses the mirror as a canvas, manipulating and “vandalizing” its surface to create new narratives. The reflective surface, which is believed to reveal truths, puts viewers in the spotlight and, by questioning their perspective, encourages them to rethink their own attitude and actively participate in the dialog.
