Wildlife and the Wild Woman

A solo exhibition of Alexia Imano Marouli

02 Feb 2023 – 28 Feb 2023 Athens CURATED BY Maria Almpani TEXT BY Jessica Fertonani Cooke

Nesting,
pencil on paper,
50 x 70 cm,
2022

Wilderness is existence; part of a colossal explosions between stars, between the ocean and its shores, delicate drops of water on branches, a sound, everything unknown. It is an unforeseeable force that operates at a pace so large, we can only experience pieces of this cosmic kaleidoscope. Wilderness cannot be held. It comes and goes, when it does, because that is the way of things.

The world,
stained glass,
130 x 90 cm,
2022

Concepts of ruling ‘exotic nature’ lies within the collective unconscious of humanity, from a time where collecting otherness or ruling over the unruly, defined its conquerors sense of power in the world. The enslaving desire to rule and the profound fear of letting go has condemned mankind to believing that wilderness is found outside of ourselves, rather than within. It is evident all around us, that the world has grown to normalize the separation between human and nature, its obsession to control and the death of our relationship with the unknown. It is precisely this broken tie between people and the Wild, that Alexia Imano Marouli’s exhibition “Wildlife and the Wild Woman”, attempts to bind.

Solitude,
coloured pencil on paper,
55 x 71 cm,
2022

She searches, through her paintings, to deconstruct societal pre-conditioning to control and dominance, recounting her own life, visions, emotions and an expanded consciousness to her immediate surroundings. The green ocean, a color of the intensity of a forest, coexists with dirt and bones. Below this dirt lives uncountable years of evolution, of animals that nested or just passed by, by fallen trees, by groves planted by ancient civilizations or by the garden a grandmother planted. The time and space a ground carries is a notion we cannot hold, but which Alexia’s recalls in fragments, memories of a profound solitude, and yet, an undeniable bond to the Wild within.

Jasmine,
33 x 7441 cm,
2022

This exhibition is inspired and dedicated to the Women who has been and still, is mistreated and misunderstood through the lens of societal norms; where paramount to her behavior is the rhythm of economic speed, alluding to the phrase by Silvia Federici “our relationship to planetary rhythms and, to people’s sense of magic kills industry”. It is not coincidental that Wildlife and the Wild Woman have similar reputations. Wolves, coyotes, bears and ‘uncontrollable’ women all share related archetypes to the unconscious of society: deadly, dangerous and predatory. Archetypes that provoke fear and that history shows, has been fought against, imprisoned, tamed and sometimes utterly eliminated.

Spiritual land,
40 x 130 cm,
2022

“Wildlife and the Wild Woman”, is a space to re-elaborate within us the mishandling of the wild - a discussion needed on the basis of care and community. Alexia Imano Marouli questions, reveals the emotional ethos this scenario has created within us, connecting the viewer to their sense of loss, fear, loneliness, belonging and sparking a existencial wonderment of something much larger then ourselves.