The exhibition Sentenced to Life is composed of works in a variety of media, ranging from drawing, and photography to small-scale installations. The research carried out by the artist on species under extinction forms the starting point of the exhibition: The exploration of museum collections is followed by researching their databases, as well as the ones of universities and other organizations. A series of sculls meticulously drawn in pencil, portraits of diorama artists and an embalmed animal, are all examples of the multifaceted way in which Karastergiou draws on the museum. The individual pieces on show, as well as their pseudomuseological presentation, which creates an almost clinical atmosphere, raise questions regarding the processes of preservation and upkeep of objects as well as the information they carry through time.
The natural environment, an element Karastergiou revisits in his work, is juxtaposed to, and comes into dialogue with notions of the archive and archival processes, research, presentation, as well as storage and ultimately mediated knowledge and information, references also central to Karastergious’ work, in this exhibition as well as throughout his creative work. Drawing and elaborating on this practice, the show as a whole as well as its respective parts, occupy a thin dividing line between the truth and the false, real information and constructed narrative.
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