Pulp Paintings
This catalogue focuses on a series of paintings made of discarded euro banknotes. These imposing fields of colour produced by the synthesis of the original banknotes are part of a greater investigation that seeks to remobilise devalued material. With a foreword by Jean Capeille.
“The story of the success enjoyed by pulp magazines comes down to a principle of coherence. Narratives of what are considered to be minor puzzles—science fiction episodes, police investigations, erotic pretexts—find, in pulp paper, the "inferior" material base that makes their widespread distribution possible. According to this tautological justification, the sophistication of the object refers back to the supposed sophistication of its content. The operation that Christodoulos Panayiotou executes with his Pulp Paintings represents a crack in this principle of causality. He imposes a compact, flat form on a pile of demonetised banknotes salvaged from the Banque de France, creating paper pulp from shredded money that by the end of the process will have conserved nothing of its original composition except a residual manifestation of pigment. Nothing remains of this invalidated material apart from a new colour produced by the synthesis of the original banknotes. It is said of colour that it represents the substance of the object: in this sense it is as if "money laundering" was money's ultimate fate—that which doesn't readily "show its colour" finally sets it up as the sole guarantee of its own reality.”
“The story of the success enjoyed by pulp magazines comes down to a principle of coherence. Narratives of what are considered to be minor puzzles—science fiction episodes, police investigations, erotic pretexts—find, in pulp paper, the "inferior" material base that makes their widespread distribution possible. According to this tautological justification, the sophistication of the object refers back to the supposed sophistication of its content. The operation that Christodoulos Panayiotou executes with his Pulp Paintings represents a crack in this principle of causality. He imposes a compact, flat form on a pile of demonetised banknotes salvaged from the Banque de France, creating paper pulp from shredded money that by the end of the process will have conserved nothing of its original composition except a residual manifestation of pigment. Nothing remains of this invalidated material apart from a new colour produced by the synthesis of the original banknotes. It is said of colour that it represents the substance of the object: in this sense it is as if "money laundering" was money's ultimate fate—that which doesn't readily "show its colour" finally sets it up as the sole guarantee of its own reality.”
Jean Capeille
Published on the occasion of the artist's exhibition at galerie kamel mennour, Paris, from October 15 to November 24, 2018.
Published on the occasion of the artist's exhibition at galerie kamel mennour, Paris, from October 15 to November 24, 2018.
Christodoulos Panayiotou (born 1978 in Limassol, Cyprus, lives and works in Limassol and Paris) transforms the world into a theatre in which the myths that unite us are acted out. From one enigma to another, his works reveal the hidden history of the world, like a contemporary archaeologist whose role is no longer to relate history but to rephrase it. Christodoulos Panayiotou often uses Cyprus as backdrop and starting point, choreographing a constantly reinvented version of history and exploring the way in which simple gestures can act as subversive counterpoints to homogeneous, nationalist narratives. Christodoulos Panayiotou's work is a metaphor for the fact that work is no longer valued, but instead of destroying or giving up, his oeuvre seeks to shift interest onto the value of art. Panayiotou highlights the fragility of one of our fervently held beliefs: that trade and commerce are the mainstays of our society.
Book
published in October 2018
bilingual edition (English / French)
17 x 24 cm (softcover)
96 pages (color ill.)