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She's all art, my gran
..and now she's making an exhibition of herself By Rod McPhee What a Greek! Imagine flying your granny from Athens to Britain then making her spend every day cooking and cleaning in an art gallery.
But when 22-year-old Leeds University student Janis Rafailidou suggested it to 80-year-old Athena she jumped at the chance.
Because the octagenarian-turned-living-sculpture is now pride of place in her granddaughter's fine art graduation show.
As part of the installation Janis shifted the experience of her Greek home life lock, stock and granny into the 25 degrees exhibition currently on show in Leeds.
And despite being ogled by hundreds of visitors as she knits, tidies and prepares food she seems to be taking the experience all in her stride.
"In Greece we would do anything for our children," she said proudly. "So being here and doing this – it doesn't bother me at all. It's a little strange at first but after a while you just relax and forget about everyone else."
Athena's installation forms part of a wider exhibition at the Whitehall Waterfront venue which rests at the bottom of a new block of flats on Whitehall Road, near Leeds city centre.
The display features the contemporary works of 25 fine art students from Leeds University. The various pieces employ an array of mediums such as fabric, sculpture, video montages, photography, but only one utilises a Greek grandmother.
Smell
Athena now comfortably resides in a semi-reconstructed Greek kitchen surrounded by olives, fresh bread and Greek marmalade while images of domestic life back in Athens are displayed on wall-mounted TV screens.
Janis said: "I had wanted to bring the looks and smell of Greek into the space here – but then we wanted to bring the whole experience.
"I was in the house and my grandmother was there and I wondered: 'wouldn't it be great if I could take my grandmother to Leeds as well.'
"When I suggested it to her it was almost a joke but then she said 'Yes I'd love to come'.
"It isn't about recreating Greece here, it is about bringing the experience to a different space and how that change in environment changes the meaning and the experience."
The only sticking point is accommodation. Poor student Janis can't quite afford a hotel, so Athena is spending her nights at her granddaughter's Meanwood pad.
l 25 degrees continues until next Wednesday.
For more information visit www.25degrees.co.uk
rod.mcphee@ypn.co.uk
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Friday 25 May 2012
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