THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE UNREAL
In The Disintegration of the Unreal, Legakis is exhibiting photography taken in Dali and Lijiang, two touristic cities in Yunnan Province in China. Over one month of research, he dissected the life of local communities but also of the tourists who rushed through these two cities maybe for two to five days without experiencing the real life. Legakis took photos of very touristic and small local places where only local people walk and live so as to convey the parts of the cities that tourists do not experience. His style of photography is very much inspired by dance movement depicting a dynamic and painterly feature within a usually static photograph.
In this installation he is using Traditional Calligraphy paper as a frame of the photos so as to depict the Chinese traditions and also for lighting design he is using brown & black candles so as to connote the ephemeral aspect of what we are living and experiencing day by day. The candles other than having a sacred meaning Legakis is using them to represent materiality and man’s body that ‘hosts’ us during our lives which, as the fire burns, it will eventually decay and disintegrate. Legakis chose to use brown & black candles to represent grounding and the light that comes out of darkness; also convey forgiveness, they are receptive of energy, and when focusing on a burning candle can help to see the pitfalls of making the same mistakes over and over, as well as deeper levels of the unconscious.
Legakis here is using Colored and Black & White photos so as to show the disintegration of the actual ‘image’ or superficial reality in which man is living. He furthermore wishes to point out the importance and energy man gives on material things such as excessive food, clothes, luxurious holidays which is all an aspect of our external world and short-lived; instead of spending quality time to reflect and develop our internal world which is what will allow man to develop his consciousness and living standards as a whole world community.
