Interview with Alana Kakoyiannis
Untitled
Video Installation, 3”00’ Video loop, b&w, sound

(To view images from the "Mother of God" organized by participants in the _gaia collective's Wonder Women residency project from which these questions come from please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/d0ris/sets/72157594513527182/)

Noelle Lorraine Williams: In what ways does your work manipulate the viewer?

Alana Kakoyiannis: In no way is my intention to manipulate the viewer other than through traditional narrative structure. The piece magnifies and extends a moment, thus presenting a space for anticipation. However, during the time before and after the crescendo there is the capacity for the audience to participate and experience the piece by discovering their own meaning. I believe it is in that instant that art happens.

Noelle Lorraine Williams: In what ways is your work a manipulation of sight and touch?

Alana Kakoyiannis: Video is often associated with truth, however more often than not the play of lights and shadows reinterprets reality. The visual experience for the viewer of watching the Pyrex break slowly over time gives a sense and makes it easy to imagine the physical experience.

Noelle Lorraine Williams: How do you manipulate the material to rework our understanding of history and contemporary culture?

Alana Kakoyiannis: By using a modern medium with an iconic symbol of domesticity.

Noelle Lorraine Williams: How does a “shared dialogue” and collective art process effect what you create?

Alana Kakoyiannis: The work becomes informed by different perspectives and is pushed closer to reflecting universal truths.

Noelle Lorraine Williams: How does it manipulate the idea of the ‘individual” art creativity?

With each contribution, discussion and question raised the work moves further away from the individual and falls closer to the realm of collective art; the line between the two becomes almost indistinguishable.