Nebokeru is the first solo presentation of Stelios Kallinikou at Grey Noise, Dubai.

Stelios Kallinikou approaches photography as a spatially performative act. An archaeologist by training, he is interested in unearthing narratives of spaces which lie beyond words. He presents us with sequences of imagery, flowing into interlaced dialogues, whilst exploring the nexus between the narrative limitations of photography and consciousness. The photographic effect known as Bokeh has been defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light”. The term comes from the Japanese word boke, which means “blur” or “haze”, or boke-aji, meaning “blur quality”.

The exhibition title is derived from the Japanese verb Nebokeru denoting the actions or condition of someone who is half-asleep. Images appear mythological and archeologically proto-human, connecting something primordial to the present by way of narrativising the body’s connection with the earth. In an introspective, meditative pace, Kallinikou brings works together constructing a world serving as a speculative scenario, through which he can better envisage his relationship to politics of vision, challenging the ways in which such mechanisms influence our experience.

Courtesy of Grey Noise Gallery