Art Limited

Konmark Photography on Art Limited

https://www.artlimited.net/25668

LensCulture

LensCulture is one of the most authoritative resources for contemporary photography from around the world. It is committed to discovering and promoting the best of the global photography community.

https://www.lensculture.com/kon-markogiannis

KONMARK IMAGES WORDS

Blog covering multiple topics such as ancient and contemporary art, sacred sites and architecture, experimental photography, existential and perennial philosophy, world mythology and folklore, transpersonal psychology, parapsychology and the occult, eastern and western poetry and literature, world cinema, meditative music, alternative history and archaeology, comparative religion, esotericism, hermeticism, mysticism, contemporary spirituality, integral theories, psychedelic research, science and the evolution of consciousness.

http://konmarkimageswords.tumblr.com/

Asia House exhibition

https://twitter.com/asiahouseuk/status/779244260998647808

Mind Patterns (Work in Progress)

Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Immutable Boundless Light.

(Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead)

Mind Patterns is a series of cameraless photographs/computer constructions which deal with the artist’s inner need to transcend mundane reality in search of the absolute. The work was inspired by Tibetan Buddhist theories regarding “universal consciousness” and the art of avant-garde pioneers such as Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy whose photographic experiments (solarizations, photograms etc) challenged the established notion of photographic "reality".

Manifestations of the ineffable exist in our subconscious where billions of organic and inorganic, human and pre-human images and experiences are stored in a kind of virtual hard drive. With the help of computer simulation-manipulation I attempted to retract primordial shapes and symbols, textures and patterns, spaces of darkness and luminance from this collective depository and rendered them into digital post-photographic photograms.

My intention with this experimental work was to suggest that everyday reality as we normally perceive it is a kind of virtual reality: it is a product of our limited awareness and an illusion imposed by our senses. According to Buddhist teachings our minds are integral parts and exponents of a universal network of energy (“universal mind”) which is eternal, indestructible and omnipresent. By applying appropriate techniques and practices -such as meditation and artistic creation- the individual has the potential to rise above trivial reality and experience a radiant supra-reality and enlightened state of mind (“clear light”).

Celeste Prize 2016

Divine Decay 39 longlisted for the Celeste Prize 2016.

https://www.facebook.com/celestenetwork/posts/1246672182024306 

https://www.celesteprize.com/selections/pg:in16/tipo:a/ 

https://www.celesteprize.com/artwork/ido:391539/

ArtGemini Prize 2016 Exhibition

Thursday 22 September – Friday 30 September (10.00 – 18.00)

Asia House Gallery

63 New Cavendish St W1G 7LP London United Kingdom

http://www.artgeminiprize.com/shortlisted-artists-2016/

http://asiahouse.org/events/art-gemini-prize-2016-exhibition/

Royal Photographic Society

The Royal Photographic Society

https://www.rps-international.org/about/shortlist-159/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEs27xEAjpK/

Grafik (work in progress)

Kombination (work in progress)

Collage on old book cover

Konstruktion (work in progress)

An ongoing series of collages inspired by great avantgarde artists of the past such as Kurt Schwitters. These collages are a way of making sense of our complex, fragmented world and an artistic attempt to impose unity and order on life's chaos. Bits and pieces of newspaper, calendar pages and other discarded ephemera take on new life by being combined, juxtaposed and superimposed; through playful improvisation and experimentation they form mysterious alliances proving that even the (seemingly) worthless can have value and meaning.

Sam magazine (editor`s pick May 2016)

“Porno_Sublime_02”, editor's pick, Sam Slovak art magazine (May 2016).

 http://www.sam-magazine.sk/en/galeria-vyber-redakcie-maj-2016/

 https://www.facebook.com/SAM.magazine

Divine Decay

 “Despite wide recognition that art has an important commercial aspect, art sustains its cultural image as an essentially sanctified domain of higher spiritual values, beyond the realm of material life and praxis”. [01]

-Richard Shusterman

Divine Decay is a series of photographic/mixed media constructions informed and inspired by holy texts, illuminated manuscripts, death memorials, alchemical/occult symbols, sacred geometry, religious icons and Renaissance panel paintings. The work deals with memory, remembrance and decay and tackles issues such as spirituality which is often neglected but also essential for the well-being and inner balance of the individual in our hypertechnological and increasingly materialistic society.

The gritty and damaged appearance of the images alludes to fragility, mortality and the transient nature of earthly existence. Although such subjects are generally perceived as rather morbid and depressing, reflection on their significance could prove to be an illuminating way of reflecting on life. Photography is a medium often associated with death and impermanence: in her influential book On Photography Susan Sontag suggests that “all photographs are memento mori.” “A photograph,” she says, “is  (participation) in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability.” [02]

The use of photographic portraiture intends to affect the viewer on a visceral and spiritual level: quite often a face has been described as “the mirror of the soul” and even today some cultures believe that a photograph somehow captures the soul of a person. The combination of portraits with religious iconography, holy texts and various esoteric symbols suggests that death may not be a definite full stop but -perhaps- a gateway to another kind of existence. According to many religions and wisdom traditions life on earth may be perceived as a gift, a learning experience or a kind of journey. The father of analytical psychology C.G. Jung (who combined various fields of research such as religion, mythology and alchemy) believed that the human psyche has a relatively trans-spacial and trans-temporal nature. As he has argued, “we are not completely subjected to the powers of annihilation because our psychic totality reaches beyond the barrier of space and time.” [03]

Life after death as a concept is somewhat incomprehensible, ungraspable and unfathomable. Nevertheless, it is perhaps something we ought to consider and prepare for. The aim of  Divine Decay is to remind us both of our finitude and our potential immortality: via playful combinations relationships are formed which result in a kind of alchemical synthesis of various elements which seek to communicate with the viewer on an aesthetic, esoteric and spiritual level.

References:

[01] Shusterman R. (fall 2008) ‘Art and Religion’. Journal of Aesthetic Education. 42 (3), p.2.

[02] Sontag, S. (1978) On Photography. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[03] Jung, C.G. (1999) Jung on Death and Immortality. Princeton University Press, p. 132.

http://konmark.com/gallery_697271.html

Work in Progress

Photos from Photometria Festival