My Big, Fat, Greek, Kitsch Fantasy

Greek cultural heritage is complex, often shaped by fantasised representations of classical antiquity and other signifiers associated with the country’s history and geography. Whether these are accurate depictions of Greek culture or not, such clichés have been adopted by the diaspora in many parts of the world in order to reappropriate their identity when settling abroad. In a dialogue between visual research and production, Phèdre Barbas translated many of these symbols – from classical architecture to the fake stucco walls that might be found inside a Greek restaurant – into a series of furniture pieces that act as a pastiche of different archetypes, each questioning the semiotic language used in the construction of a national identity.