Athens Art Gallery
2006 αίθουσα τέχνης αθηνών
Aphrodite Kouria
Art Historian
For Marigo Kassi the encounter with the “myth”, on the given theme, was a challenge. Starting for the first time from a tangible subject, point of reference, the artist wished to interpose to become familiar with it, from her contact with the painting medium- a contact that for years had been the core work. Work that never had a starting stimulant. Some elements of the story (especially the water) as she herself admitted, incited her sensitivity. Experimenting with her media and her behavior, Kassi found solutions that morph plastically served the deep meaning of the theme. Working with water-colours on stucco, she succeeded to give a dull, heavy colour impression that recalls the stagnant, dirty water of the lake where the bodies sink and rot. The surface acquires, one could say a liquid massivity which is far from the known light and transparency of the aquarelle. Suggestive images, haunted by the “taste” of death. The female body is dominant in its presence in some of her paintings, limiting the space; Bodies “dumb”, headless. Emphasis is given to the feminine element. In addition, the headless maimed body refere directly to violence, to the tortured death of the women.
The painted surface and the layers of her media on it, have been junction points of research for many years. Here they have acquired particularly with the use of stucco, a plastic significance with a specific conception of weight. They commit you to frescoes that time has left his signs on. The story-legend of long ago days like as a picture of an other era, seen through the filter of time. The small size of some of her works with “incidents” of the drama and of course the emphasis on the framework, on the bordering of each portrayal where one can sometimes dimly discern the will for stage setting of images, attest this concept of the artist about her treatment of the subject-matter.