We Would Live In An Ugly City And We Would Be Happy, 2023

Dye sublimation print on satin, Screenprint on acrylic, Steel, dimensions variable
Dye sublimation print and screenprint on organza, Screenprint on acrylic, Steel, dimensions variable

“Let the others go to Switzerland, to Los Angeles, To Saint Mauricius, to the Bermuda triange. We, would live in an ugly city and we would be happy” is how Nikos Panagiotopoulos film Beautiful People end. I saw it by chance in a heatwave packed Athens on my mothers television when I was trying to avoid the panic attack my latest love affair was raging on me. We Would Live In An Ugly City And We Would Be Happy is a love story between Athens and Glasgow, both ugly cities, both a place where we could be happy. Longing and desire exist as ghosts, that haunt the places we walk through, the spaces we inhabit. Images of these places reflect these spectres, images that are themselves ghosts, poor and abstract. The installation exists as fragmented pieces of a series taking form through different interventions on textile, opening up the opportunity to play and experiment with their placement in a space, and crating different narrative options for the viewer to explore while visiting the space.

Anna Koutsafti