MARIA PARASCHIDOU

I am a Fine Artist.

My practice is about exploring the streets that we live in. I believe that we ignore the power that we have to challenge and change the norms of how public space is perceived and configured. My art tries to unveil the uniqueness of urban reality as well as its relationship with the contemporary human. 

My work is currently embodied in three different ways of image-making. Black and white film photography, high-quality digital photography, and low-quality phone photography. Through film photography, I found a way of protesting against my addiction to fast art and fast image creation. I slowed down and observed more. The slow image-making procedure of film photography enables me to spotlight the pleasant monotony of every single experience. By framing little details that surround me on my everyday routine, I try to highlight the ignored and the not important. Inspired by the overwhelming bombarding of information through social media, I wanted to throw my work into a new experience, outside my safe zone. The limited number of images that can be captured through film photography forces me to pay attention to the framed material, thus, uncover a unique beauty of reality. 

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However, due to Covid-19, I was forced to change my practice. Being unable to interact within the street and develop my films, I was forced to use digital cameras and capture my "house experience" during the lockdown. Contrastingly, I chose to overuse digital photography and create countless images of similar objects and scenes inside my personal living space.

Influenced by the current situation of Covid-19 and the countless information bombarding social media, I forced myself to deeper explore the contemporary nature of exposure of privacy and everyday routine on social media. Thus, I exposed myself through a 24hour Instagram performance during which I recursively posted numerous spontaneous low phone quality images of the particular moment with no previous observation of the environment, every ten minutes. Through my practise I question fundamental qualities and addictions of contemporary life.

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