Practicing Pleasure Where Possible
2018
Installation
Ceramics, clay, steel, wood, electric cables, kitchen towels and sponges
Variable dimensions
Inv. No. 1494/22
Paky Vlassopoulou (1985, Athens, Greece) has developed an idiosyncratic sculptural language that incorporates elements from traditional handicraft techniques and their performative capacities, attempting to explore the relationships of space and embodied experience from the perspective of the female subject. One of her primary references is the essay “Contradictions of Capital and Care” (2016) by American philosopher Nancy Fraser, in which she analyses the relationship between gender and care based on the concept of “the crisis of care” as a fundamental premise of social production and breeding ground for gender inequalities. Through a feminist perspective on issues of female identity and corporeality, this work addresses the intricate nexus of the relations of care and social production, the role of women as the predominant care providers, labour relations in the private and public spheres, and the gender discriminations that they are associated with.
Falling somewhere between sculptural installation, prop, and music score, Paky Vlassopoulou’s installation Practicing Pleasure Where Possible (2018) combines soft materials, such as towels that bear explicit references to the concept of care, with solid sculptural objects produced through traditional manual practices. Incorporating ceramic sculptural elements that allude to modern-day and ancient breast pumps as well as objects that make sound, such as loudspeakers and bullhorns, the installation addresses the role of woman as a nurturer/care-giver in relation to gender-based definitions of her social role as they were formulated during the transition from the pre-industrial agricultural to the industrial age. As tools and containers for transporting food, the ceramic objects are connected by cables and supported by metal structures that the artist defines as “gossip tables”, i.e., units that accommodate a discussion.
Paky Vlassopoulou lives and works in Athens. She co-runs the artistic space 3 137 in Athens. Selected fellowships and residencies: International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York; ARTWORKS (SNF), Artist Fellowship Program, Athens; WHW Akademija, Zagreb; AIR Antwerpen Residency, Antwerp. She has presented her work in various solo exhibitions (selection): A day after a day after a day after a day, One Minute Space, Athens (2023); A Manual to Observe the Stars on a Ceramic Plate – Dinners in 3 acts, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens (2018); If Future a Dead Loss, Werft 5 – Raum für Kunst, Cologne, Germany (2017). Group exhibitions (selected): 8th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2023); Weather Engines, Onassis Stegi (2022); Geometries, Onassis Stegi, Agricultural University of Athens (2018); (IM)MATERIAL GESTURES, PIIGS_An Alternative Geography of Curating, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2016); The Equilibrists, New Museum, New York and DESTE Foundation, Benaki Museum, Athens (2016); A Thousand Doors, NEON Organisation and Whitechapel Gallery, Gennadius Library, Athens (2014).