James Pasakos
Boat, Metamorphosis I
Medium: Monotype Print, 20 x 20cm
Artist Statement
Part of an ongoing series portraying the Docklands, Pasakos continues the narrative of travel and discovery in new works. During recent travels overseas he has often considered the valuable migrant stories of travel. The boat is a metaphor of travel, its iconography, symbolism of the artists memories of the past and the present. It represents time, change and the blending of the two worlds he identifies with and belongs to.
New works are continuously unfolding, they reflect powerful experiences as they act as reminders of the fragility of our sense of self in the world, and the way in which that sense of identity may develop and spawn new cultural identities that change or shape values of other cultural frameworks.
New and ongoing works that have developed explore travel, memory, identity and belonging for Pasakos. Greek and Melbourne Dockland iconography metamorphosis into landscape images that appear dreamlike, surreal and mythic. Iconic landscapes are depicted from the island of Kos, Greece where his parents were born, they serve as a metaphor for a mysterious journey and a portal of a sense of place and transformation.