Portfolio lll Allegoria
Pierre Diamantopoulo’s artistic scope is extensive; his style resolutely capricious.
The elegance in his “Figures in the Landscape and Interior” (Portfolio l & ll) can often be seen in his studio side-by-side with what we have here — the uneasy, the dark and the bizarre at the other, extreme end of his range.
It is in this distinct, absurdist world that another strangely inventive and restive imagination steps out from behind the curtain. However, the underlying sense of mutability and droll humour is still there.
This is where Pierre’s affinity for the carnivalesque, the theatrical, the exotic, the classical form and artefact is liberated, giving his style a curious, edgy slant.
Of Masks and Masqueraders...
In this strand of Diamantopoulo’s work, the ambiguous, allegorical and theatrical are conflated and the clay of human history is rummaged and refined in
order to celebrate the folly of the present.
This is a place of incongruous fusion, inhabited by figures of uncertain genus. Here, in a toy box of ancient culture, you can wear and swap masks and conjure up hybrids from a disturbing, subconscious safari into the farthest regions of the atavistic mind.
Pierre’s sculptural tableaux are distilled, perhaps, from a snippet of a song, a saying or a piece of theatre– Théâtre de l'Absurde, the Commedia dell'arte and The Ballet Suédois are influential – his players occupying a world of logical nonsense.
Whether they be harpies, zebramen or ostrichmen, the ubiquitous hare, horse or bird, in this seemingly endless parade we find an archetypal menagerie of classical lore turned on its head.
Humankind and the animals are yoked together in a fantastical vision skewed by the sense of unrest and disorientation typical of his work.
"The other strand of my practice shown here, is ambiguous, allegorical and atavistic, but still concerned with mercurial forces..."
“There are two distinct strands to my figurative style. They seem to be intellectually and emotionally worlds apart, but they share the same impetus.
In the first strand (Portfolios l and ll) there is a cool and measured response to a profound sense of unrest.
The other strand of my practice is exotic — shown here in Allegoria and also in Equidae, Portfolio lll.
It is ambiguous, allegorical and atavistic, but still concerned with mercurial forces. In this work, every piece also has its own narrative.
Here, I work on impulse — mixing dark foolery, the poetic and the literary with theatre and folklore — blended with a sort of logical nonsense.
This may be a voyage into the past, personal or absurd, diverted by the raw and primitive, with the wit, the mimic and maverick on board.
These works are often executed with an immediate, freer hand, exploiting the texture of the raw material and sometimes are, intentionally, less polished, sketches in clay.
Their painted or patinated surfaces are worked and re-worked, layered and eroded, marking time on their faces."
Archival — Allegoria cont'd
