Eugenia Raskopoulos uses the performing body to reflect on cultural practices that relate to everyday life, from the translation of words and their meaning across cultures, to aspects of sexuality and the erotic.

Eugenia has in the past used steam, salt, oil and chalk as a means to smear, score and drip words into temporary formations that emphasise the fluidity of language. In her new video installation footnotes she turns to materials that relate more directly to ideas of sexuality and gender – from lipstick to liquids of more ambiguous origins.

Using her own limbs as instruments or surfaces for inscription, Raskopoulos performs a series of actions that accumulate letters into words, written in English and Greek. Through these gestures she draws attention to translation as an awkward exchange that is shaped by the potential for loss or contamination of meaning.

The performing body is an insistent presence in footnotes, emphasising written and spoken communication as inherently bodily functions. However, in evoking the slippage between different languages and juxtaposing this with references to the erotic, Raskopoulos also alludes to aspects of experience that are beyond words.

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Eugenia Raskopoulos has exhibited nationally and internationally for 28 years, most recently at 798 Art Bridge Gallery, Beijing (2011) and Performance Space, Sydney (2010). Her work is held in significant public collections, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. She recently completed a PhD at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales.
 

AGNSW Contemporary Projects are supported by Andrew Cameron.