4 - Diasec mounted colour photograph.

Spring Projects is pleased to present Pandora, the London solo debut exhibition by British artist Petros Chrisostomou.

Chrisostomou constructs hybrid spaces, combining the concerns of artist, sculptor and curator. Through his practice he takes possession of each space, creating a dynamic paradox between the three-dimensional architectural models he builds and the final photograph, which renders it two-dimensional.

His work, as much sculptural as photographic, can be viewed on several different levels. Drawing inspiration from concepts of hyperreality, Chrisostomou’s images not only revel in signs and symbols – the simulacra of contemporary life, they transcend that postmodernist trope of the simulacrum, offering distinct traces of the skewed realities of the Dadaists or fantasies of the Surrealists. These Dada-esque or surreal qualities are underpinned and stabilised by the architectural accuracy of his miniature interiors, which draw from broad influences, from classical Palladian or a White Cube gallery space, to the contemporary commercial kitsch of fast-food joints. The humour is undeniable, but its satirical subjects are tantalisingly obscure and much more than a gimmick, it digs deeper than that, asking us to do the excavating.

Division (Kunsthalle) - Diasec mounted colour photograph.

Chrisostomou’s self-constructed model interiors contain life-size objects and within this context, the objects are transformed into oversized sculptures, surreal representations of themselves. The perversion of scale is meant to elude and seduce us – are we in Gulliver’s Lilliput or Brobdingnag? The images elicit questions, is what we see a reality or a fiction, a narrative or an enigma?

Pandora will feature a selection of pivotal pieces that form Chrisostomou’s oeuvre to date.

In Division, 2010, the deliberate placement of a skewed row of pure white court shoes begins a dialogue about the objects and the space, positing upon whom wields the power to decide what is presented in there – an archetypal white cube. Mischievously, Chrisostomou has already decided, by putting on his own show in the gallery space. In 4, 2008 we are confronted with a totemic sculpture composed of three saveloy sausages casually crossed, balanced like a Dada ballerina in the middle of a down-at-heel burger bar. The visceral centre-piece resembles the Channel 4 television logo provocatively parodying both low and high culture.

Chrisostomou through the whimsical humour of his images questions how we perceive and interpret them using a range of incongruous visual clues which are not simply obscure constellations of objects and spaces, but symbolically rich contexts. In whichever way we relate to them these sculptural works rendered into still-life tableaux, continue, through their complexities, to intrigue and to beguile.

Petros Chrisostomou was born in London, 1981. Currently, he is a resident on the International Studio and Curatorial Programme, New York. Recent selected exhibitions include Plastic Lemons, Spring Projects, London (2011), Revolver, Galerie Xippas, Montevideo (2010), Artists for Athens, The Breeder/Athens Playroom, Athens (2010), Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed, The Photographers Gallery, London (2009), In Present Tense-Young Greek Artists, EMST National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2008).