In memory of Stella, whose work had a profound effect on the cultural life of the Greek Community of Melbourne, with the request that the following excerpt and images about the life and work of Stella Tsirka be used for inclusion in the Greek Australian Art Directory (GAAD).
Stella was born in the old city of Athens. From a young age she showed talent in music and art. After completing high school education she attended music lessons at the University of Athens. She is a self-taught artist and has been practicing her painting for more than 20 years. Her technique, although simple in execution, is quite effective in describing feelings and highly charged emotional states. In many of the compositions one can see surreal elements as if coming straight from her subconscious to dominate an otherwise quite logical landscape. There seems to be an on-going struggle between logic and the subconscious, between what one expects to see and what appears in a landscape. Stella’s is a very personal style, derived from her own life experiences and her desire to express feelings which lie too deep for words. In landscape and portrait painting Stella found the perfect medium of artistic expression.
Στέλλα Τσίρκα
Γεννήθηκα στην αρχαία Αθήνα. Μετά τη μεσαία εκπαίδευση, φοίτησα στο πανεπιστήμιο μουσικής στη σχολή μονωδίας της όπερας της Αθήνας. Από μικρό παιδί έδειξα ταλέντο στη μουσική και ζωγραφική. Με την ζωγραφική ασχολήθηκα περίπου είκοσι χρόνια. Αγαπάω τον υπερρεαλισμό. Τα χρώματα μου είναι από μαγεία των αγριολουλουδιών και του ουράνιου τόξου. Έχω προσθέσει επί πλέον μαύρο και καφέ σε διάφορους συνδυασμούς. Η σκιτσογραφία μου πηγάζει από το υποσυνείδητο με αντιμέτωπους την λογική να διαμαρτύρεται αλλά η σκέψη μου το παρουσιάζει έξω να το γράψω, έτσι το βλέπω
“In memory of Christella, whose work had a profound effect on the cultural life of the Greek Community of Melbourne, with the request that the following excerpt and images about the life and work of Christella Demetriou be used for inclusion in the Greek Australian Art Directory (GAAD).”
Media Press Release
Run and Fly, Monster Tooth!* A posthumous exhibition of paintings by artist Christella Demetriou
1st – 30th May 2019 Darebin Arts Centre, cnr Bell St & St Georges Rd, Preston, Vic. 3072
A posthumous exhibition by Christella Demetriou, Run and Fly, Monster Tooth!, will premiere at the Darebin Arts Centre on Wednesday, 1st May. The retrospective will feature a selection of works spanning Demetriou’s career as well as artefacts celebrating her diverse and multi-layered creative life. Esther Anatolitis, Executive Director of the National Association for the Visual Arts, will open the exhibition. Commissioner, Rosaria Zarro will represent the Victorian Multicultural Commission. Artist & curator, chair of arts Mildura board, founder of museum of innocence Mildura, Domenico De Clario, & poet Andrea Demetriou (The Inconsolable Clock) will speak about her work.
Christella Demetriou was an artistic polyglot. She not only excelled as a painter, but was also a composer, a classic instrumentalist of the bouzouki, an unknown poet and an athlete. A refugee from what is now occupied Cyprus, Christella and her family migrated to Australia in 1976. She exhibited widely and performed in both Australia and Greece.
As a painter Christella was an artistic cryptographer, she used abstraction to hide within her paintings everything she could not endure, everything she could not face. She paints her feelings, her despair at the elusiveness and the falsification of love, her inability to reconcile her dreams with reality, her mother with her father, life with death, the invisible wound with the visible indifference. The deeply rooted pain of being uprooted, of not belonging, and finally her constant and chronic confrontation with cancer are indelible themes of her work.
According to curator Mitch Goodwin, “Christella’s paintings make for difficult, but soulful viewing. They are darkly euphoric explorations of the contrasting, often conflicting, modes of abstract expression. They endure because they explore a longing; a constant search.”
Christella rarely spoke directly in her paintings, however the directness of her poetry and the indirectness of her colours are communicating vessels. From her hospital bed, when she was stripped of all sense of ego, insecurity or fear she spoke her last words of love. Looking her sister straight in the eye, she said, “People are afraid to look at love directly, it’s overpowering. You are pure love, inside out, upside down, from all angles.” She also whispered to her, slowly and in anguish, “Life is a journey in the desert without relief… but you break the nightmare.”
Monster Tooth was Christella’s childhood nickname. A day after her death, artist and curator Elizabeth Gertsakis wrote to her friend, Run and fly, beautiful one!
Christella Demetriou passed away in 2018 at the age of 52.
Poetry Night (related event). On Monday the 13th of May at Ithaca house, Level 2, 329 Elizabeth St., Melbourne, at 7 p.m., academic Nick Trakakis will present his translation of major contemporary Greek poet Tassos Livaditis, whose poems have been set to music by Mikis Theodorakis; Some of the most polemic poems of Vassos Lyssarides, legendary leader and honorary president of the Socialist Party of Cyprus , will be read as a tribute on his 99th birthday; Edward Caruso will speak about his new poetry collection Blue Milonga which travels across the natural and political landscape of Argentina and Chile; Garry Foley will present Andrea Demetriou’s poetry book, The Inconsolable Clock, which expands from the wars for resources to the existential dead end, and is introduced by Christos Tsiolkas; finally poems by Christella Demetriou, translated by her friend Pavlos Andronikos, will be read.
I am a Sculptor and Painter with a passion for story telling through art with a focus on themes that are inspired by my Hellenic heritage and modern art.
I have expertise in Painting, Sculpture, Street Art and Murals, Installation, Performance Art and Graphic Design. My training in Art Therapy and role as a co-founder of the Melbourne Art Therapy Studio, provided me with additional skills in the therapeutic application of the visual arts in both clinical and private, individual and group settings.
Bachelor Degree in Visual Arts /South Australian School of Art, Australia Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts/ Athens School of Fine Arts, Greece Erasmus Scholarship/Madrid School of Fine Arts, Spain Master of Art Therapy/ La Trobe University, Melbourne
Sifis Tsourdalakis was born in Melbourne, Australia.
Son of Soctates and Anna Tsourdalakis, he was born in Melbourne in July 1975. He grew up in a Cretan family environment and he was introduced early to Cretan music by his parents. His father, born in Melambes of the Agios Vasilios district of the Nome of Rethymno, migrated to Australia in 1965. His mother from Asi Gonia of the Apocoronas district of the Nome of Chania migrated also to Australia in the same year.
From an early age Sifis, together with his twin sister Eleftheria and his older brother Antonis, were the main members of the of the Rethymnians Association of Melbourne, “Arkadi”, dancing group and later of the Cretan Brotherhood of Melbourne and Victoria. Sifis has inherited the musical talent of his ancestors as his grandfather Antonis Tsourdalakis was a famous mandolin player in the district of Agios Vasilios since 1918. All his grandfather’s brothers also were players of Cretan musical instruments. Two of his uncles, Kostas and George, in Melbourne, were skilled Cretan musical instrument players as well as two of his cousins. Sifis in this environment has followed the family tradition.
His father, Socrates, was one of the founding members of the of Rethymnians Association of Melbourne, “Arkadi”, and its Secretary for ten years. In this capacity he was in contact with many of the Cretan musicians that the Association was inviting to Australia from 1973 onwards. Most had been provided with hospitality at his home, such as Mountakis, Sifogiorgakis, Skevakis, Melessanakis, Skordalos, Papadakis, Kaklis, Makrogiannakis, Alefantinos, and many more. Listening to their music made an impact on young Sifis that resulted in him wanting to follow the family tradition of a career in Cretan music.
In 1979 when George Papadakis was visiting Melbourne together with Manolis Kaklis, recognising the emerging talent of young Sifis he gave him as a gift of one of the two Cretan lyras that he had with him. Since then young Sifis treasured this gift of the lyra. With the only teacher his Cretan musical instinct and listening to the recordings of the early Cretan musicians, his love for the Cretan music flourished and started his early musical career.
Nicholas started off his musical journey at a young age. From primary school through high school Nicholas perfected the art of playing drums. In the 1990’s he began playing with several local wedding bands and as a DJ performer at bars and nightclubs around Melbourne.
By 2000 Nicholas was well into the DJ business and performed as a percussionist on a regular basis. In 2010 he stepped back from the club scene and entered the corporate world of weddings, engagements and private functions.
Nicholas continues to build on his musical career with his motivation and tireless dedication in becoming a truly unique and highly requested musical performer, drummer and percussionist who has also mastered the toubeleki, a Greek traditional drum instrument often used in the traditional folk rhythms of Greek laiko and rebetiko music.
