Wivenhoe Printworks
July 29th 6 – 8:30pm
During the last few days of July and the first half of August Printworks was very pleased to welcome a temporary guest Member: the internationally recognised Cypriot artist Efi Savvides.
Efi was in the UK for just eighteen days as friend and guest of another Printworks member: Zoe Papadopoulous. During this very short time Efi worked with us at Printworks to develop a series of screen prints as part of an ongoing photo-print project on the historic imagery of Cypriot independence. The project included making halftone photo-stencil screenprints overprinted in multiple colours, based on contemporary images of the exile of the first leader of Cyprus Archbishop Makarios as he struggled for the country’s unification with Greece.
The images were printed often in seven or eight separate colours onto aluminium-faced ‘Dibond’ display boards. In the process there were a great deal of experimental colour tests and trials!
During our work together on this project we also began to learn more about the very wide range of Efi’s print and mixed media work. The opportunity was too good to miss, so at short notice we arranged the first of what will now be an occasional ongoing series of informal presentations. “Meet The Artist: Efi Savvides” (Saturday 29th July 6-8:30pm). This was an informal talk with slides illustrating her past and recent work, combining classical and modern imagery with personal mementos and focussing on political divisions of identity, notions of ‘home’ and the shared legacies of globalism.
In the two hour evening session Efi introduced a selection of her internationally commissioned mixed-media works, and shared through an informal discussion session how her personal artistic experience had developed over recent years.
Efi’s chosen media range across art heritage pieces screenprinted onto mass-produced paper napkins and handkerchiefs, large scale architectural prints viewed through translucent gauzes and window blinds, maps of lost homes, displaced districts printed onto gaudy cafe ‘hospitality’ trays, and photojournalist records of personal habitations lost and found.
Bridging conceptual art, figurative printmaking, architectural memory, photography and political commentary, Efi’s work is both delicate and beautiful in its execution and powerful in its questioning of historical identity, notions of home, and collective sense of belonging.
The evening was a great success and simulated a great deal of lively questions and discussions.
If you have ideas for future “Meet The Artist” events please contact Eliza Kentridge ( elizakentridge@hotmail.co.uk ) or John Wallett ( johnwallettdesigner@gmail.com ).
You can also check out Efi’s own website for more details of her exhibitions, commissions, collaborations and publications: https://efisavvides.com/About
