Marina Kassianidou
Assistant Professor
Department of Art and Art History
University of Colorado Boulder
Summer 2024
Tenure Review Dossier
Documentation of Selected Creative Work
*Please Note: You can click on each image to enlarge it. Some images have captions. Moving the mouse pointer over an enlarged image will bring up the caption. Moving the mouse pointer off the image will hide the caption. The images are best viewed on a laptop or desktop computer screen. Thank you for your time!
01 - 02
23 x 2
2016
Acrylic on adhesive vinyl on floor; graphite on floor
15.4 x 7.7 m (607 x 303 inches) (approximate dimensions of floor)
Site-specific installation created as part of the solo exhibition How to Know: A Space, Thkio Ppalies, Nicosia, Cyprus, May 26 to June 17, 2016
The work involved the duplication and translation of all cracks found on the cement floor of the space. I first traced all the cracks and then used the traced shapes to create my own “cracks.” These were made by cutting adhesive vinyl according to the tracings and by painting the vinyl to get it to resemble a stone texture. Each “crack” was then adhered on the floor next to its corresponding crack, with a translation of approximately three inches to one side and three inches towards the interior of the space. Very fine cracks were drawn directly on the floor using graphite.
03 - 04
Rain
2016
Acrylic medium on glass
140 x 132 cm (55 x 52 inches)
Site-specific installation created for group exhibition Limassol: The Aftermath of Development, curated by Maria Lianou and Alexandros Christophinis, First Municipal Social Housing Buildings (abandoned), Limassol, Cyprus, October 3 to 27, 2016
The work involved recreating raindrops on the dusty windows of a room in an abandoned building. I recreated the raindrops by painting on the inner side of the glass, right behind the traces that past raindrops had left on the external side of the glass. The painted raindrops follow the positions, shapes, and sizes of those accumulated traces. To make my marks, I used acrylic medium, which dries clear. The painted raindrops will never evaporate and disappear. Instead, they create an uneven texture on the glass that can be felt via touching.
The First Municipal Social Housing Buildings, in which the work was installed, were built in 1948 to provide affordable housing for workers and were abandoned in the 1980s when the residents were forced to move into more modern buildings. A few years ago, the municipality had planned to demolish these buildings but the local architects’ association protested and convinced them to renovate them instead. The exhibition was partly aimed at reactivating the spaces of the buildings and, ultimately, shift the ways through which we perceive the architectural landscape.
05 - 06
Masquetry IV
2014 - 2016
Acrylic and adhesive vinyl on laminate and basswood
115 x 65 x 20 cm (45.3 x 25.6 x 7.9 inches)
First exhibited in Third Juried Exhibition, juried by Dean Sobel, Pirate Contemporary Art, Denver, CO, USA, November 26 to December 11, 2016
Masquetry is an ongoing series of interventions, through painting and collage, on pieces of found laminate flooring and wood. The collages make use of wood-patterned adhesive vinyl (vinyl contact paper). The works attempt to partially disrupt the pattern printed on the laminate or to somehow recreate the natural growth rings of wood, engaging in conversations on the relationship between materiality and imagery and nature and artifice.
07 - 17
One Dimension Lower
Solo exhibition, Yes Ma’am Projects, Denver, CO, USA, May 26 to June 23, 2018
The works shown as part of this exhibition responded to the space’s basement dwellings in an almost geological manner, isolating, recreating, and modifying marks, images, and materials. I created new works using materials already found in the exhibition space, such as patterned fabrics, wood, and laminate flooring. Such designed/constructed materials can reference specific types of landscapes—for example, the patterned fabrics show flowers and the laminate pretends to be wood, creating an oblique reference to a flattened representation of the woods. The works were installed according to pre-existing features of the three rooms in the space, drawing attention to those features while creating a zone of indiscernibility between works and space. Moreover, echoing the low placement of the basement within the building and partially under the surface of Earth, all works were installed on or close to the floor, beneath the windows. I approached the basement as a conceptual space—it is a space that recedes and that suggests an alternative or underground narrative that needs to be excavated. The works presented in the space were precisely unearthing alternative or underground narratives, narratives already embedded within materials but not necessarily visible or clearly legible at first.
07 - 08
Back to Blue
2018
Acrylic on found patterned cotton fabric
381 x 111.8 cm (150 x 44 inches)
Site-responsive installation created as part of the solo exhibition One Dimension Lower, Yes Ma’am Projects, Denver, CO, USA, May 26 to June 23, 2018
In Back to Blue, I gradually “erased” the red, pink, and yellow flowers printed on the readymade fabric by “submerging” them in blue paint marks. This covering up was done in stages, one color at a time, reversing the printing process that brought the original image into being. Starting from the back of the painting, in one row of flowers I painted over one color, in the next row over two colors and so on, such that the flowers closer to the viewers are completely painted over, recreated as a painted image. Through the act of painting, a different pattern emerges.
09 - 10
Untiled
2018
Adhesive vinyl on wall
266.7 x 121.9 cm (105 x 48 inches)
Site-specific collage created as part of the solo exhibition One Dimension Lower, Yes Ma’am Projects, Denver, CO, USA, May 26 to June 23, 2018
To make the collage Untiled, I first traced the marks left on the left wall after the faux tiles placed on it were removed. I recreated mirror images of these marks on the right wall, using wood-patterned adhesive vinyl. The original marks and the recreated marks begin to form a decorative pattern on the walls.
11
One Dimension Lower
2018
Solo exhibition, Yes Ma’am Projects, Denver, CO, USA, May 26 to June 23, 2018
Installation view
Works shown:
Floor Paintings
2018
Acrylic on MDF on floor
Dimensions variable
Faulty Samples IV
2014–2018
Fabric collages and acrylic on found fabric in bound book
48 x 32 cm (18.9 x 12.6 inches) (closed book)
12 - 13
Floor Paintings (details)
2018
Acrylic on MDF on floor
Dimensions variable
Site-specific installation created as part of the solo exhibition One Dimension Lower, Yes Ma’am Projects, Denver, CO, USA, May 26 to June 23, 2018
These paintings are based on the floor of the gallery. The laminate flooring—which is essentially a printed image of wood—is turned into a handmade painting, an object of study and visual excavation. Each painting consists of short brushstrokes that attempt to visually approach the lines of the wood pattern. The paintings are placed on the floor, subtly modifying the flat terrain.
14 - 17
Faulty Samples IV
2014 - 2018
Fabric collages and acrylic on found patterned fabric in bound book
48 x 32 cm (18.9 x 12.6 inches) (closed book)
Floor Painting
2018
Acrylic on MDF on floor
113.5 x 55.2 x 3.8 cm (44.7 x 21.7 x 1.5 inches)
Site-specific installation created as part of the solo exhibition One Dimension Lower, Yes Ma’am Projects, Denver, CO, USA, May 26 to June 23, 2018
Faulty Samples is an ongoing series of one-of-a-kind books containing paintings and collages on found fabric samples and patterned fabrics. The fabrics in Faulty Samples IV were obtained from fabric and home furnishing stores in Limassol, my hometown. The pre-existing pattern on each sample was disrupted or a new pattern was created by adding pieces of the same kind of fabric on top of the printed image or by painting over parts of the image. In some cases, as in Zip, these interventions involve single actions. In other cases, as in Unkempt III, the work involves repeated interventions—cut leaves from the pattern have been placed over the flowers. The cut pieces of fabric act as marks added onto the larger piece of the same kind of fabric.
18
Unkempt
2020
3D virtual environment in Mozilla Hubs (online) [Site no longer available]
Work created for the group exhibition WADS: Water, Air, Dirt, Sun, curated by Demetris Shammas, Myrto Aristidou, Emiddio Vasquez Hadjilyra, and Constantinos Miltiadis, commissioned by RISE Cyprus. Part of Ars Electronica Festival 2020, Linz, Austria/Online on Mozilla Hubs, September 9 to 13, 2020
Ars Electronica Festival 2020, titled In Kepler’s Gardens, took place online due to the pandemic. For the Cyprus participation, RISE Cyprus (Research Center on Interactive Media Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies) commissioned 21 artists to create virtual spaces informed by the gardening process of grafting.
I created a maze composed of images of my fabric collage Unkempt III (image 17). I “grafted” an actual material (fabric) in a virtual environment. The images zoom in and out of the fabric, presenting it sometimes as a flat image and sometimes as a weaved material. The audience/avatars can immerse themselves inside the image/material, potentially experiencing a foldable space that collapses in on itself; a space that is senseless, fluid, concrete, flat, tactile, pixelated, and weaved. I built the space using the software Spoke, allowing its specificities in the way it deals with images (projection, pixelation, glitches, etc.) to become part of the work. The space was experienced in the online environment of Mozilla Hubs and the audience used avatars to move around. You can view recorded walk-throughs of my space here (best viewed in full screen mode):
https://vimeo.com/950049808/64e3145ca8?share=copy (65 seconds)
https://vimeo.com/950045925/a502fe3b1c?share=copy (29 seconds)
https://vimeo.com/950051324/7b6908d761?share=copy (32 seconds)
* Please note that the choppy movement in the recordings is due to the Mozilla Hubs avatar controls. Avatars can move backward, forward, and sideways but cannot turn continuously. Turns are experienced as visual cuts.
19 - 25
page intentionally left blank
Solo exhibition, Thkio Ppalies, Nicosia, Cyprus, October 13 to November 3, 2018
Works exhibited:
Dotted Lines
2010-present (ongoing series)
Paper collages with A4 lined writing paper
21 x 29.7 cm each collage (8.3 x 11.7 inches)
Maquette I
2018
Pine wood
Dimensions variable
Dotted Lines is an ongoing series of collages. I punch holes out of lined A4 paper and glue the punched-out chads on other sheets of the same type of paper, reconstructing or disrupting the existing lines. The choice of a hole puncher directly relates to the paper, its use, and its existing holes. When gluing the chads, I try to either recreate the existing lines, even if imperfectly, or disrupt and redirect them. From some distance away, one cannot clearly see the glued pieces but only a slight disturbance on the surface. The collages are installed on Maquette I, a site-responsive three-dimensional drawing that recreates, disrupts, or redirects actual and imaginary lines in the space.
26
Exercise Book
Artist’s book
Text by Maria Petrides
Photography of works by Vassos Stylianou
Published by P. S. Artist Led Projects, Nicosia, Cyprus
Edition of 300
ISBN 978-9925-7501-0-8
First published as part of the solo exhibition page intentionally left blank, Thkio Ppalies, Nicosia, Cyprus, October 13 to November 3, 2018
For this book, the lined paper I use for the Dotted Lines collages, returns to its previous form—an A4 writing pad. Photographs of the collages are turned into a modified pad that the viewer/reader can flip through. I have been making the Dotted Lines collages since 2010 and I have come to look at them as an exercise in exhaustion. That is, in trying to find all the possible ways in which I can make these collages, I am exhausting both the surface and myself. The title of the book, Exercise Book, is a reference to the specific materiality of the paper, its everyday use, and to the continual work of collaging.
The book is meant to exist in a physical form but, for the purposes of the review, you can access a digital version here (best viewed in full screen mode):
https://issuu.com/marinakassianidou/docs/exercise_book
27
a trembling line
A collaboration with artist Mira Dayal
2021
Web-based work
Work created for Intermission Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA/Online, launched in March 2021 as part of the Museum’s Volume I.(https://intermissionmuseum.org/)
In 2021, in collaboration with artist Mira Dayal, we created the web-based digital piece, a trembling line, for Intermission Museum of Art. a trembling line takes the form of a series of linked webpages of visual material that emphasize the marginal, the liminal, and the off-screen while questioning what it means to perceive, read, and access. Mira and I developed the overall concept together and many of the individual works that form the bigger work were developed collaboratively. We also worked on our own on individual works. One of my works for a trembling line involves animated GIFs that recreate dirt, dust particles, and fingerprints from my laptop screen. Similarly to my other works, these digital pieces become site-responsive, recreating subtle marks one may find on a screen. You can access a trembling line here (best viewed in full screen mode):
https://atremblingline.com/
https://intermissionmuseum.org/volume-i/atremblingline/
28 - 32
geometric frustrations
Solo exhibition, east window SOUTH, Boulder, CO, USA, August 25 to October 28, 2022
Works exhibited:
Wrinklegrams I–VII, 2022, Black pigment ink on found log-log graph paper, 26.7 x 40.5 cm (10.5 x 15.94 inches) each
Mappings I–VII, 2022, Copper drawings (drypoint), 26.7 x 40.5 cm (10.5 x 15.94 inches) each
Stands I–VII, 2022, Red oak, Dimensions variable
The work revolved around a series of drawings on sheets of found log-log graph paper printed by the U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey Water Resources Division. The graph paper was likely used to record stream discharge data for rivers through a flow-duration curve. After rescuing the paper from the trash, I crumpled individual sheets, partially unfolded them, and then drew over every resulting crease. In these drawings, the paper itself becomes the terrain and the drawn lines try to record all its ridges and valleys. I then created maps of the drawings by engraving mirror images of the drawn lines on copper plates identical in size to the graph paper. The copper drawings reference traditional map printing techniques. The U.S. Geological Survey used copper engravings to print maps up until the 1950s.
The surface of Earth enters the conversation through the use of the specific graph paper and through the material of copper. According to applied physics research, the process of crumpling paper parallels the folding of Earth’s crust due to compression.* When the constantly moving tectonic plates in the crust are pushed towards one another, the crust might bow upwards or downwards, causing the formation of mountains, ocean trenches, or faults. The crumpled graph paper and carved copper become meeting sites for the smallest and largest movements that frame/shape our surroundings, pointing to our attempts to organize and represent space and place and to the potential implications of our corresponding choices.
* Jovana Andrejevic, Lisa M. Lee, Shmuel M. Rubinstein, and Chris H. Rycroft, “A Model for the Fragmentation Kinetics of Crumpled Thin Sheets,” Nature Communications 12 (March 2021).
33 - 39
We are no longer beings but sensations
Solo exhibition, DXIX Projects, Office K102A, Department of Art and Art History, Colorado State University (CSU), Fort Collins, CO, USA, April 6 to September 30, 2023
This was a site-responsive installation of works that fit within existing elements in the space of K102A, an office space within CSU that was also used as an exhibition space by the artist-run initiative DXIX (Los Angeles/Fort Collins). The works included paintings and collages on patterned fabrics, engineered wood, and wood-patterned vinyl. These mass-produced surfaces are commonly found in interior spaces, forming part of the constructed landscapes in which we exist. With each work, I was looking for ways to inhabit these materials that already inhabit our spaces. By painting over parts of a pre-existing image, reorganizing an image using collage, or by recreating parts of an image/material in another material, I burrowed into each surface, “excavating” it and unearthing potentially unseen narratives. All interventions arose through a conversation with each material.
My choice of materials was partly in response to the exhibition space itself—its orange carpet, wooden furniture (a desk and a bookcase), fabric chairs. The works were installed according to pre-existing features of the space. The Gradients paintings were placed on the wall, each painting across from a potential opening (three windows, a door). Two Faulty Samples artist’s books were placed on the desk. Works from the Masquetry series, as well as other works with engineered wood and vinyl, were installed in the bookcase. The works sometimes emerged as paintings, sometimes as collages, and sometimes as readymade fabrics or as pieces of wood. The seemingly straightforward materials with which the works were made became sites of attentiveness, complexity, and contradictions.
33 - 35
Gradients I - IV (Variants series)
2023
Acrylic on patterned cotton fabric
15.2 x 20.3 x 2.2 cm (6 x 8 x 0.875 inches) each
For these works, I painted over all the flower petals in the printed pattern using various tones of the pattern’s background color: black (Gradient I), blue (Gradient II), brown (Gradient III), and green (Gradient IV). I left the white center of each flower unpainted. The original pattern can be seen around the edges of each painting.
The ongoing series Variants, to which these paintings belong, involves works with patterned fabrics. I am interested in floral fabrics, like those used to make clothes, curtains, pillows, quilts, and so on. These materials reference place on multiple levels. The patterns printed on them reference nature while turning it into ordered and reproducible images and functional objects. The fabrics themselves usually exist with/in specific places—domestic interiors and human bodies. I also lean towards these fabrics partly because I grew up surrounded by them—my maternal grandmother was a seamstress and sewed the family’s clothes and household items using very similar fabrics. My interventions depend on the printed pattern. I enter into a process of analyzing each pattern, looking for alternatives.
36
We are no longer beings but sensations
2023
Solo exhibition, DXIX Projects, Office K102A, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA, April 6 to September 30, 2023
Installation view
Works on table:
Faulty Samples VI and VII, 2023
Fabric collages with patterned cotton fabric in bound books
31.8 x 22.9 x 1.9 cm (12.5 x 9.5 x 0.75 inches) (each closed book)
Works in bookcase:
Masquetry VII (series of works), 2015–2023
Adhesive vinyl on basswood, found wood, hardboard panels, found laminate, and medium-density fiberboard
Dimensions variable
OSB Double Take, 2019
Adhesive vinyl on basswood panel, Acrylic on basswood panel
20.3 x 25.4 x 1.9 cm (8 x 10 x 0.75 inches) each panel (diptych)
37
Faulty Samples VI and VII, 2023
Fabric collages with patterned cotton fabric in bound books
31.8 x 22.9 x 1.9 cm (12.5 x 9.5 x 0.75 inches) (each closed book)
Faulty Samples is an ongoing series of one-of-a-kind books containing paintings and collages on found fabric samples and patterned fabrics. The pre-existing pattern on each fabric was disrupted or a new pattern was created by adhering cut pieces of the same kind of fabric on top of the printed image. Faulty Samples VI and VII were made for the space of Office K102A and their dimensions reference folders and writing paper.
38 - 39
Masquetry VII (series of works), 2015–2023
Adhesive vinyl on basswood, found wood, hardboard panels, found laminate, and medium-density fiberboard
Dimensions variable
OSB Double Take, 2019
Adhesive vinyl on basswood panel, Acrylic on basswood panel
20.3 x 25.4 x 1.9 cm (8 x 10 x 0.75 inches) each panel (diptych)
The Masquetry collages play with the absurdity of converting a material into an image. Wood-patterned vinyl pretends to be wood, providing a cheaper alternative to actual wood by making (the image of) wood more readily accessible for use within interior spaces. The interventions on each collage hover between disrupting and recreating wood rings and printed patterns while interweaving the artist’s marks with natural and mechanically produced marks.
OSB Double Take involved recreating part of a found OSB (oriented strand board), which is a type of engineered wood made of compressed layers of wood flakes. I first recreated the OSB as a painting, accentuating the painterly qualities of some of the wood flakes that resemble brushstrokes. I then “translated” the painting into a collage, an image of overlaid cut pieces of adhesive vinyl, itself a printed image of wood.
40 - 42
Envelope Letters
2020 - present
Graphite, colored pencils, security envelope strips, photocopier paper, archival drawing paper, pine wood, clear acrylic
21.6 x 27.9 cm (8.5 x 11 inches) each collage
Shown as exhibited in Beyond the Real, two-person exhibition with Sasha Alexandra, Rule Gallery, Marfa, TX, USA, February 18 to April 22, 2023
During the shelter-at-home order in April 2020, I began making/writing a series of works/letters using materials I had at home—plain 8.5x11-inch photocopier paper, on which I drew lines to turn it into lined paper, and old security envelopes that I had been collecting for years. These envelopes have printed patterns on their interior surface to protect their contents. The “text” in my letters consists of collaged envelope strips, turning the various security patterns into a form of language. In their entirety, the works embody time, care, and a narrative of making, where each work/letter leads to the next.
43 - 50
A Partial History
Solo exhibition, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY, USA, April 12 to May 15, 2024
Works exhibited:
A Partial History (Book VI), A Partial History (Book V), A Partial History (Book III) A Partial History (Book VIII)
2024
Archival inkjet prints on 308gsm matt rag paper
45.7 x 39.4 x 3.8 cm (18 x 15.5 x 1.5 inches) each (framed)
A Partial History (Vol. VI), A Partial History (Vol. V), A Partial History (Vol. III), A Partial History (Vol. VIII)
2023 - 2024
Artist’s books of inkjet prints on 104gsm smooth matt paper
Dimensions variable
A Partial History (Drawing VI), A Partial History (Drawing V), A Partial History (Drawing III), A Partial History (Drawing VIII)
2023 - 2024
Graphite on 300gsm rough press watercolor paper, red oak
Dimensions variable
The ongoing work, A Partial History, revolves around a collection of 19th and early 20th-century books—primarily schoolbooks—written in Greek, that belonged to my grandparents and great-grandparents and that I found in my late grandmother’s library.
I “re-read” each book as a material object rather than a text, focusing on marks of use and time: folds, creases, tears, stains, pencil marks, discolorations, and wormholes. For each book, I trace these marks by hand, page by page, and then print and bind the drawings into a new book—the same size as the original—containing only the excavated marks. The recreated books become alternative history books, recording the history of handling of each original book.
Furthering this process of book translation, I make two-sided graphite drawings based on the book tracings. These drawings are approximately ten-time magnifications of the tracings, referencing human scale—their dimensions averaging 6 feet in height by 4 feet in width. One drawing corresponds to one book, with one side depicting the marks from the odd pages superimposed and the other side the marks from the even pages. The accumulated lines map the shifting terrain of each book while compressing time and revealing its effects all at once.
The artist’s books and large drawings are accompanied by photographs of selected spreads from each original book—the photographs acting as another trace of the absent books.
The work juxtaposes two languages: Greek, which may be unreadable to a non-Greek-speaking audience, and the drawn marks, which evoke different forms of “reading” and “writing.” The “unreadable” marks recall an embodied and potentially shared mode of knowing, one that depends on touching, feeling, and handling objects. These marks may be more readable to a non-Greek-speaking audience than the Greek characters in the original books. The lines between readability/unreadability and language/non-language dissolve through our shared movement in and touching of the world.
