Cover image: Dimitra Skandali: Oceans and Seas II, v.4″, 2016-2019; Photo by Spyros Hound
From the catalog of “Whispers in my hands”, curator Kostas Prapoglou:
“Traversing across lyrical landscapes, Skandali’s works emerge as eruptions of quaint optical attractiveness, energized by the perpetual need to seek for our roots and better understand the place we live and belong to. Each work conceals a map, not necessarily a real, physical map, but a noetic construct. During her research, the artist receives inspiration from actual geographical, archeological, nautical and even town maps, which she studies in the same manner as she reads a poem. She gradually begins to meticulously scrutinize and eventually deconstruct them, line by line, verse by verse, looking for symbols and veiled meanings, they float as isolated single entities that fabricate a universal composition.”
First image: Dimitra Skandali, Pulau R.A. with Karang II, 2017; Photo by Haro Kagemoto
Middle image: Dimitra Skandali, Sea Beds and Signals, 2019; Photo by Marie-Luise Klotz
Third image: Dimitra Skandali, 6885 miles, 2013-14; Photo by Robert Divers Herrick
Pina Piccolo: What were the different stages of your development that lead to your own artistic process of creating immersive environments taking found natural materials existing in nature? Did you go through other paths that you explored for a while and then abandoned? How did you come up with the idea of crocheting seaweed? Was it related to crafts you have observed on the island or was it stimulated by art school and the practices of other artists? And what about the maps? Did having exposure to them through the nautical maps and practices of fishermen have a role that you then extended to mapping stones and nature? Do you feel that the urge to map the island in its more natural state is in any way related to anxiety about the processes of gentrification that are already at work and are altering its current configuration?
Dimitra Skandali: Growing up on the island, meant incredible natural beauty, balanced relationship between humans and land, abundant love, but also incredible limitations… growing up especially in Alyki in the 70’s or even the 80’s, meant none or very limited exposure to art in any form. No art classes at school. Everything was revealed for me after a very long period of personal struggle to find out what made sense for me to understand the world… in that struggle, the love from family and friends, nature and the sea were my healers. Nevertheless, it was a very long path to realize that I loved expressing myself through art. And this adventure begun with few drawing lessons in the Aegean center of the Arts on Paros, which I discovered later, and that lead me to feel the need to learn how to paint, so that I could express my emotions better! Slowly, I decided to learn more and delve deeper so I abandoned everything, my career as a business woman, and I continued the drawing classes in Athens. The next step was to take the exams and succeed to the prestigious Athens School of Fine Arts in the age of 36. I couldn’t believe it… I never dared to dream something like this… Focusing on painting, photography and printmaking in the first years of the art school, made me see that it wasn’t enough to create works in two dimensions. I felt the need to take elements out from each surface I was working on and create a three-dimensional experience… In my third year, I went to the Netherlands and stayed for a year as an exchange student. It was a mind-blowing experience, when I traveled all over northern Europe and saw for the first time in my life so many and powerful site-specific installations. I am still processing what I saw then… my response was immediate. Everything I did there were in three dimensions and then I was ready for my graduation project in Athens, which was four large scale installations.
Dimitra Skandali: Weaving the valleys of love, 2023; Photo by Konstantinos Mavris
After my graduation, and with the experience of Holland, I was determined to continued my studies and to pursue my Master’s degree. I succeeded in San Francisco Art Institute and at the age of 41, I landed in San Francisco. It felt like I landed on the moon. The school, its teachers and community created such a warm welcoming that I still remember and makes my heart melt… at the end of the first semester I visited my aunt in San Diego, and I spent countless hours to the beach to recover from the change and the hard work I was undertking. And I saw the sea grass from the Pacific Ocean, called Zostera Marina, which was a completely different seaweed/grass from what I was used to… my aunt was crocheting all her life, and it was an automatic response to ask for her crocheting hook. I had no idea about the material’s strength, elasticity, if it could be knotted or not. I tried it and it worked! From that moment on, I never stopped crocheting… and it was also an immediate reaction to create simple crocheted forms that resembled to fishing nets, which was an icon of my memories from Alyki, which was a fishermen’s village.
I never thought I would make something referencing tradition. I literally run away from all that which reminded me of the limitations I felt growing up in the village. But unconsciously, it became my safe haven when I was thousands of miles away. It became my anchor, I had to feel deep into my roots so that I wouldn’t get lost in all this melting pot of globalization in California.
With the distance of almost 7000 miles, finding an oceanic element, and sitting at the beach or in my studio, the bus or train or airplane and crocheting, made me feel closer to my people and the island’s beauty. It was –still is- like a meditation, like a prayer. And the way I wanted to present my pieces was always creating installations; creating a new experience which hopefully included all senses: optical, sonic (with sound pieces), sometimes with smell, when you thought you could smell the ocean… crocheting came automatically because it was something (among others) that my grandmother taught me when I was a child. Embroidering was a continuity of the manipulation of the sea grass, and after that, weaving with a portable and all kinds of small looms or recently with knitting needles. It has been a never-ending inspiration to use these traditional techniques and create small pieces which, afterwards, I put them together to create these ethereal large-scale pieces.
Dimitra Skandali: Oceans and Seas II, v.4″, 2016-2019; Photo by Spyros Hound
The maps and trying to understand them, were always another need I felt. Trying to understand each new place I visited made me focus and I wanted to learn more about it. The nautical maps that my father used as a fisherman or a seaman who was traveling to trade were definitely the initial inspiration. The addition of numbers and lines stayed with me as a reference. And it was mostly the game with lines and dots and the different forms and the accidental that made me use the maps in an abstract way, in combination with the elements of each place. For example, breaking/using geological, geophysical, architectural maps from Paros or the Bay Area, made me feel more grounded; using the lines and the dots, the formations of the rocks and the stones of the island, made me listen to it more deeply… And poetry, a verse, a word, put words in my emotions. Not necessarily for the viewer to read it but for me to express with these lines, dots and letters my feelings.
During the years so far what you are describing was an esoteric need. It wasn’t until now though that the threat of the abrupt change of the landscape became very frightening… yes, it has become the need to create a cartography of what I experience on the island before it is too late and we won’t be able to recognize our living environment, the Cycladic identity anymore.
Dimitra Skandali: Any courage is a fear, 2022; Photo by Konstantinos Mavris
Pina Piccolo: In its freedom and ambition, creating an immersive environment in some ways can be reminiscent of the process of ‘child-play”. Can you connect your childhood in any way to your creative process? What kind of games did you play as a child in Paros? Were there any gender related freedoms and restrictions that played into it?
Dimitra Skandali: I love that symbolism… for me, it has been more of a game of discovery, and re-appreciation of the small, unimportant and unnoticed little things that nobody pays attention to: small flowers, leaves, seaweed and sea grass, trash, reclaimed elements, the unexpected; to notice details of each piece and to be surrounded by it in all aspects; to offer another reading to things. I guess, talking about childhood, it is the curiosity and the wonder, the everyday surprise of discovering new things; you don’t have to go far away to discover them… because I was a shy and frightened kid, most of the times, it was also the loneliness that spurred me to find ways to enjoy myself with every little thing and to create my own world, to get lost into it … when I was with the neighborhood kids (all of them, cousins) of my age or younger, these games were full of joy and happiness. There were group games that we played with a ball or running around the neighborhood, swimming and playing at the beach. But yes: for sure, growing up as a girl was different than growing up as a boy in my years. Too many restrictions, you had to get home by a certain time, there were certain things you could do – and, especially, not do, always with somebody older or your brother(s) with you, and never alone if you were to go somewhere. Thank god, it’s not like this in the present times.
Dimitra Skandali: Floating Land 2021; Photo by Konstantinos Mavris
Pina Piccolo: A poem when it is successful, creates a universe of its own, with mysterious gateways. Do you think your process may be influenced by deep-rooted practices of mysteries dating back to historical and mythological times that somehow have survived in your island? How do they melt in and are woven through in later layers of Christianity? I was observing a great number of people from the community of Paros participating in the Saint John’s Eve festival, a bonfire on the beach with children jumping over it. The same children who usually may be immersed in video games and the trappings of modernity. Can you talk about how your art addresses issues of tradition and modernity? How do you draw from the identity of the island without closing yourself to experiences from elsewhere around the globe?
Dimitra Skandali: Of of course, Greek history and mythology are rooted deeply into all of us with Greek origins, no matter if we want it or not. For sure, mythological figures and stories like Penelope’s woven and unwoven stories waiting for Odysseus, Demeter and Persephone’s relationship as a mother daughter but also as the symbolism of the circle of life, dying and rebirth of the earth, ancient tragedies and comedies are definitely some of my references. Growing up in a conservative and religious little society and attending from a very young the services in the little churches, with the smell of the candles, the scents and the flowers, with the priest and the others singing psalms and getting lost into the iconography in every little surface of the esoteric of each church, with the light changing and reflecting the colors and every little silver or gold element, created a memory of being embraced and protected, acceptance and heartwarming peace. I think being surrounded by all this made me feel safe. At the same time, I carry dearly my childhood memories when my grandmother, mother and the women of my family got together very often interacting while crocheting, weaving or embroidering.
Dimitra Skandali: SD. In Memory of my Grandmother, 2012; Photo by Marie-Luise Klotz
At the same time, I am always enjoying my father as a tradesman and fisherman, when he is mending his long-line fishing sitting and sharing stories with other fishermen or when all these fishermen in Alyki while mending their fishing nets are sharing their news and adventures in the sea. These communal gatherings made me create opportunities, especially when I was in California, alone and far away, to gather with friends, with wine and little snacks in my studio or at the beach, to collect sea grass and knot it all together while I was crocheting it and sharing stories from our places. Yes, these are beautiful memories that even now, being back on Paros I feel I continue in a different way: We love gatherings, hanging out and sharing thoughts and discussing about any kind of issues, while listening to traditional or modern music and/or dancing. I invite artists to the Cycladic Arts garden and every month we create opportunities of interaction with local and foreign communities of all ages and backgrounds. Unifying and creative forces are something that I want to cultivate, no matter how busy and difficult life can be. To answer more precisely your last questions, yes, I always wanted to create opportunities to visit local museums (folklore or archaeological), to follow traditional events and festivities in villages around the island or other places, like the one you mentioned, and let the visitors learn and be part of all these. For my own practice, the traditional techniques that I use are definitely something which makes my art closer to my Greek and island roots while being contemporary in the way I present them. It is my concern to take tradition and transform it into something very personal, to let it be an inspiration for a step further and not a bargain to push you back. I wish to be part of the contemporary art scene no matter the cost to my personal life; because things can be overwhelming in life.
Dimitra Skandali (b. 1969, Athens) grew up on Paros, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. “I carry my island with me everywhere and this shapes the way I see the world”, she states. Her installations allude to increasing environmental risks alongside with human migrations and struggles about identity. She was educated in Greece (ASFA, 2006-2010) and the Netherlands (HKU, 2008-2009) before coming to California, and earning her MFA in New Genres from San Francisco Art Institute (2011-2013).”
The experience of growing up on Paros, an island in the Aegean Sea in Greece, and my journey since then to build a community across the oceans, is central to my work. I carry my island with me everywhere and it shapes the way I see the world. I create installations inspired by their exhibition spaces weaving together found elements from those locales to create ethereal forms; reminders of the sea, with its openness and possibilities, as well as its fragile and unstable limitations. The process of familiarizing myself with these new places through the search for materials helps me to weave together points of connection in an ever expanding web, even if only temporarily.
Author’s image: inscape | wedding dress, 2015; Photo by Victoria Heilweil
