Cactus

Titika Salla-Doukoumetzidi studied painting and engraving at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1967 - 1972). Her artistic creation is influenced by her experiential relations with nature, and by the logical syntax of an integer in the disjunctive conjunction between the smallest insect and man. A naturalistic feeling is diffused throughout the artist's subject-matter, from the ethereal, limpid form of the dandelion, to the delicate microcosm of the cicada and the human figures of baked clay. In her work she uses first and foremost wood and clay, primordial organic materials which she elaborates and composes into modern forms. The use of discarded materials, such as wood from a ruined windmill and a shovel for shaping bread and putting it into the oven, provides Salla with the opportunity to 'care for' these old objects and to elevate them into something else - something exclusively her own. It is in this way that the artist produced the series 'The Common Cicada', which is concerned exclusively with the form of the cicada, formulated in a multiplicity of surfaces and materials.