P A N A Y I S
C H R Y S O V E R G I S
Space Invaders
Work in progress
Royal College of Art, UK



I work with a medium format camera. The photograph which forms the centrepiece of the installation is the result of merging three images in order to have the maximum resolution for the final print. With the proportions of the Linhoff 617 maintained, I integrate selected Lego pieces through advanced techniques of collage and digital manipulation in the original post-documentary image.
For the installation, I present the artwork as a large-scale print (260 cm long edge) to emphasise the interplay between two worlds: the world of the image and the physical world of the lego pieces in order to augment the audience's experience and view through a disturbing and haunting enmeshing of the two worlds.
My aim is to embed the future generation in current ecological global issues by using children’s objects as proxies. The challenge is how to aestheticise the artwork in such a way as to make the work both politically poignant as well as visually and conceptually compelling. By revealing these popular childhood objects behind these dystopic landscapes, I make them work in an inverse way, as “transitional objects” from the adult world back to childhood. This image plays a significant role in my artistic practice which strives to alter the visual content of post-documentary images (in this particular execution by making them more children friendly) whilst at the same time starting a conversation by expanding their conceptual power. This artistic and methodological approach intends to disturb the stereotypical way of seeing documentary photography and its traditional association with a certain form of realism.