George Athanasiou

Uncreated Insight, 2021
Medium: Acrylic on canvas, colours- Yellow, orange, black, white.
Size: 46 x 35cm

Artist Statement 

The painting was initially an exaggerated drawing of my hand. I never know what I’m going to get when I paint. It just evolves from an imagined snapshot in my mind.

A hand becomes a group of buildings, born out of the earth that gives rise to a community of people. What kind of a community is it? What kinds of people are represented here? 

The hand/building that emerges out of the sandy earth represents the building blocks of civilisations, their decay through dictatorship and censorship, and their renewal. The colours used here represent the changing face of lands and peoples, both freed and oppressed. It also represents the blood and toil spilled from those who built these places. Are these buildings the hallmarks of a better world or a bitter one? Are the people who live here builders or destroyers? Or does this picture represent the iron hand of oppression about to be clenched into an iron fist? That depends on the leaders we elect and the causes we fight for. Democracy and self determination remains fraught as civilisations rise and fall, from Aboriginal Australia to the Greek War of Independence. 

Are we right to guard the values we have when we are but a few steps away from dictatorship and totalitarianism?