Bia Davou
Exploring the intersection of mathematics, mythology, and art in the unique works of Bia Davou
Sails (1981/1982) by Bia DavouNational Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣT)
The artistic practice of Bia Davou (1932-1996) is formed through a meticulous practice of a combination of manual handicraft and industrial manufacture.
Pillars and clouds, Hypothetical intervention in the Pillars of Olympic Zeus (1983) by Bia DavouNational Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣT)
During four decades of her artistic activity, she developed a unique body of work interweaving cybernetics, mathematics, the Homeric myth of Ulysses’, poetry, as well as personal tragedy.
Serial structures (Installation photo from the exhibition Images of Greek Art in Zappeion Exhibition Hall) (1978) by Bia DavouNational Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣT)
In the late 1960s, Davou became interested in developing a new language of communication based on scientific and technological codes. She adopted a serial methodology as the organizing principle of her practice that she called “serial structures”.
According to the artist, the simple mathematical structure of the binary system –which she uses in a variety of combinations in paintings, on graph paper, burlap, bricks, rocks, pillows, etc.– can fulfil the communicational function of art.
Ink on Paper by Davou, BiaNational Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣT)
In this drawing, the patterns of dots and lines are based on the Fibonacci sequence. These triangular forms, alluding to sails, inspired the artist towards the theme of travel.
Serial Structures 2 - Odyssey (1978/1981) by Bia DavouNational Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣT)
In 1981, she began to transcribe verses from Homer’s Odyssey arranged as serial structures.
Sails (1981/1982) by Bia DavouNational Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣT)
She also wove and wrote Homeric verses in trianglular sail-like cloths of various sizes and textures, arranged as installations.
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Davou revisits the basic elements of her visual vocabulary such as the triangular shapes, the grid, the Odyssey and mathematical sequences.
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Serial De-re-structures is a work composed of 367 drawings that Davou created in the span of one year at the rate of at least one drawing per day. In this work, the eraser is used as much as the pencil. In the last drawings one can read of “Nostos” and “Thanatos” (“homecoming” and “death”, the two fundamental notions of Odyssey.
This story was brought together by the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens
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Story Author: Tina Pandi, curator EMΣT
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