The Antipodes Festival in partnership with the Hellenic Museum will be presenting a unique photographic exhibition titled Between Worlds, by the celebrated Melbourne artist, Polixeni Papapetrou.
Where does childhood begin and end? In Polixeni Papapetrou’s series, Between Worlds, children are portrayed as animals caught between the worlds of infancy and adulthood, and animal and human. In Papapetrou’s work there is identification with the world of children that is rare and remarkable.
She sees children themselves as ‘between worlds’, between infancy and adulthood and is committed to the portrayal of the reality of children. Yet she does more than identify, creating fantastical worlds that only adults can truly understand and relate to.
In Between Worlds, Papapetrou has photographed children acting as animals in the landscape. The identity of her child actors is discreetly hidden behind animal masks. The animal-like children appear as something we recognise, but also as unrecognisably alien, hybrid creatures or an interspecies. This clever device elevates her characters to participants in an absurdist drama which is both recognisable and surprising. There is a challenging confusion as the lines and boundaries between fantasy, mythology, archetype, animism and theatricality are blurred. Papapetrou has created ambiguity around the space that children occupy in our understanding. There is something eerie and unnerving in the realities evoked by the photography, because childhood has gone somewhere and the consequences are unknown.
* Neos Kosmos will run a feature interview with Polixeni Papapetrou in next week’s edition.
Between Worlds will be launched next week at The Hellenic Museum, 280 William Street, Melbourne and will run from July 8 – August 9. For more information visit www.antipodesfestival.com.au
*Read this Saturday’s English edition of Neos Kosmos for a full feature interview with the artist Polixeni Papapetrou