LA Times – Drag shows meets virtual words in the messy, absorbing ‘Make Me Feel Mighty Real’
“In a final gallery, Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou‘s soft vinyl sculptures, evoking oversized, spiked platform boots, serve as appealing signifiers of the tools of drag and drag as tool — pieces that are as tough as they are luscious. At a time in which we all build online personas and inhabit various digital avatars, this is a familiar space — one in which the outward construction of the self takes on additional layers. Is it a true self revealed through artifice? Or a glamorous layer of virtual armor piercing social mores and their attendant hypocrisies? I’d say all of the above.
The bigots won’t know what hit them.” BY CAROLINA A. MIRANDA
Make Me Feel Mighty Real: Drag/Tech and the Queer Avatar at Honor Fraser
Make Me Feel Mighty Real: Drag/Tech and the Queer Avatar – Art Papers
Daily Lazy – Drifting like a Fairy: Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou at Theocharakis Foundation / Athens, Greece
O Globo – Artista grega debate estereótipos ao preencher galerias com representações da vulva em pelúcia
“It’s all up to interpretation,” she says. “‘Fluffy’ [the exhibition] could be an extremely safe space. But at the same time, depending on your background, it could also be a threatening place. Right-wing blogs were saying, ‘Look what they’re doing to our children with these masculine little fairies and dragon princesses.’”
“But seeing the backlash on social media, you realise you are doing something which creates an earthquake,” she adds. “As the far-right goes higher and higher, queer and feminist voices of resistance get louder at the same time. Now I feel part of a growing community, making art and talking about ideas that I once only read about in books.”
by Alex King
APOLLO International Art Magazine – The museum that’s going out of its way to make you queasy
Bristol Women’s Voice – Fluffy Library at the Arnolfini
Künstlerische Intelligenz-Rebublik
Überrascht seien diese Eltern, befremdet vielleicht, aber nie verärgert, sagt die Künstlerin. Inzwischen gebe es viele Anfragen für Kindergeburtstage. Antigoni freuts, damit hat sie mehr erreicht, als sie zu träumen wagte. Denn im Zusammenhang mit Kindern, sagt sie, sei die gesellschaftliche Stimmung bei queeren und feministischen Themen ja nicht bloss gereizt, sondern die eines Tabus, gefährlich gar.«Ich spiele mit der Grenze zwischen Kunst und politischem Aktivismus – aber immer mit einem leichten Touch.» Sie wolle dem Publikum nichts aufzwingen, nur spielen, mit der flauschigen Freundlichkeit die scharfen Kanten des Diskurses etwas abwetzen. Schon bald findet der erste Drag-Workshop für Kinder statt.
und.Athens – Interview with Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou
point contemporain – ANTIGONI TSAGKAROPOULOU – FLUFFY LIBRARY & FLUFFYLAND 1/2
ArtDaily-Fuzzy playground takes over Arnolfini’s front room with a landscape of plush fur Arnolfini’s Director, Gary Topp, says: “Following a year of exploration and change we are excited to be bringing our gallery spaces back to life. From collaborating with local artists and community groups, to the recent show for graduating students from our main partner, the University of the West of England – and now Fluffy Library is an exciting, international artwork that will occupy our ground floor gallery for the summer. Come and enjoy the show, a coffee (or beer), a book or an event at Bristol’s Centre for Contemporary Art.”Arnolfini Head of Programme, Kieran Swann, says: “We can’t wait to tell more of Fluffy’s fairytale, exploring gender, identity, and monsters. Perfect for summer, this international installation and all its events, workshops, and storytelling welcomes families of all sorts, and anyone who has ever felt like a bit of a monster.” |