Cross-disciplinary artist Christos Linou is back with new work, that melds personal stories to communal and societal issues.
His fourth and fifth book, titled ‘BLUFF: ART AS WAR’ and ‘Brunswick Drawn’, were launched at the NGV Melbourne Art Book Fair at the end of May.
Establishing LinouPress in 2020 after over three decades of work in dance, choreography and film, Linou has previously released three other artbooks.
These previous titles look at street art across Melbourne, guerrilla art worldwide, including Athens, and the work of his late brother Jack Linou.
This time around Linou is sharing his own thoughts on the world around him through his research journals and artwork.
My Cyprus…
BLUFF is a collection of said journals spanning from 2012 to now, that investigate a world full of deception, explores what it means to be ‘proper’ and delves into war rhetoric.
Some of the topics explored are the LGBTQIA+, gay conversion treatment and the Cyprus struggle.
What is the Cyprus struggle though? Linou points to one glaring issue and another that lies beneath the sand.
As a Greek Cypriot Australian, Linou tells Neos Kosmos the concerns he had when he last visited the country.
“I’m still struggling with the currency of what Cyprus is doing, or where she’s at, and when I went to visit Cyprus with my daughters, pre-COVID, I was sort of ashamed,” he said.
“I thought, ‘look what’s happened’. It’s all this investment from Russia and China. You could see it. You can see it in the architecture and also in the offshore rigging.”
The artist says when he was in Limassol, he dug his hands beneath the sand, about three hands deep, and what he discovered was worrisome.
Oil soaked sand and sludge as a result of all the oil spills.
“I spoke to some locals there and they were just saying every summer or pre-summer, the Russians they invest more money, so the council just throws fresh sand over the top of the oiled sand.”
The 61-year-old also detailed the more obvious, at least for the Greek community, issue in Cyprus.
He says when he went across and around the Northern Cyprus border, the first time he had been able to get through checkpoints, he was “disturbed that it had become so run down.”
With the Russo-Ukrainian War, it became apparent to Linou of the similarities between that and Cyprus’ past, but also about how forgotten it’s become.
“I just thought with this Russia and Ukraine situation, is there a sort of similarity with Cyprus and Turkey?”
“Turkey went and invaded there, and in my article, I write about some of the historical facts on what led to that invasion. But there’s a (similarity) there and I just wondered, does Cyprus get any attention?
“This is my micro chance to bring attention to the Cyprus struggle.”
In BLUFF, Linou focused on other issues in Cyprus, more so on foreign powers rather than the oil rigs but he wished to share his concerns he saw when visiting.
Some of the other topics touched on in BLUFF include the challenges of homophobia, which, Linou, as a gay man finds very concerning, especially being part of a “conservative Greek Cypriot community”.
Gentrification and homogeneity
In Brunswick Drawn, Linou strays from bigger society issues and delves into community, capturing the gentrification of the Melbourne northern suburb of Brunswick.
Traditionally a working-class area noted for its large Greek community, Brunswick is currently known for its more bohemian culture of arts and music.
With that change, and a growing population, came the emergence of monotonous apartment blocks.
This is the one aspect of Brunswick Linou looked to capture in his drawings.
Influenced by 20th century artists like Pablo Picasso, George Grosz, Sidney Nolan and more, Linou drew in style of what these famous artists would capture the changed landscape of Brunswick.
“We’ve got all the modern amenities, but I think people are enslaving the future people in this new architecture.”
“I wouldn’t want to have to always live in an apartment block myself.
“Lots of ethnic communities’ built the area up, and now they become gentrified and too expensive for some of the ethnic communities to live in.
The built-up area is also a real headache to drive through according to Linou and many others who would commute down Sydney Road and the other main streets. This is something he looked to depict in his work.
“In my drawings, I purposely made them sort of claustrophobic. I drew right to the edge on purpose, only because I just thought this suburb is becoming built up too much.”
Having seen the suburb change in the last 20 plus years, Linou has lived both, coming from an ethnic lifestyle to now living in the artistic world, he is torn between both.
He likes the vibrancy and creativity in Brunswick, calling it ‘groovy’ and ‘funky’ but believes you need a perfect balance of working class and wealthy citizens.
Linou also misses the togetherness in the community that he feels is missing nowadays.
“You don’t really talk to the neighbourhood anymore. In the old days, I remember walking through and you talk to almost everybody. It was just a real lovely community.”
“I’m seeing a lot of that here in Brunswick as well, that loss of just chatting away to the community. People are a bit more concerned about their private space, so they barricade themselves up a little.”
With the release of the two books, Linou is onto his next projects.
A stitch at a time
One is a project called The Black Sheet Project, where Linou will sew, having been taught by his mother, a huge king-sized bed sheet with an image of his body, with blocks of text based on his mother and father’s dialogue.
Linou has been given a gallery for this work, because of his previous award-winning work Naked Peel, where he dressed himself in orange peels as he narrated his family story.
“It’s going be an interesting work, slightly controversial, because it’s based on how the conservative view on other peoples and their differences, especially in the queer culture,” he said.
A return to performative dancing is also on the cards for the Cypriot Australian, who wants to get back to his Greek roots.
“I am planning to make another performative work based on my Greek heritage. And there’s something about the Cyprus struggles I’m trying to work with at the moment and how I make that into theatre.”
“I’m trying to work out how to get the Greek dance back into my contemporary language as a dance maker.
The dancer is also planning to return to Cyprus in the near future to research into his family name Linou, and the remote village of the same name.
The last inventory of the village in 2001 saw a population of 207. Once a village mixed with Greek and Turkish Cypriots, the latter left after the intercommunal riots of the Turkish Cypriots in the 60s.
“Wouldn’t it be amazing to do some type of dance project on that?”
“I want to work out why my name is Linou… I want to cross the border and do some Greek and contemporary dances. Reconciliation perhaps.”
Interested in BLUFF and/or Brunswick Drawn? Visit linoupress.com
