Strings and Fragments: Talk and exhibition opening

A new exhibition opens at Nicosia’s CYENS – Thinker Maker Space presenting work by its current resident artist Mihalis Shammas. The exhibition, opening on February 2, will begin with a talk and a discussion with the artist followed by the showcase launch.

Shammas is an interdisciplinary artist and designer from Cyprus who joined the Artist in Residence programme of Thinker Maker Space in November 2022 and will complete it in February. His work is driven by an urge to create narrative objects and tools for musical expression. It spans instrument making, performance, sound sculpture and installation work. In all these areas, he explores intricacies in movement and sound by animating simple materials, manifesting tensions between the mechanical and the chaotic.

The Strings and Fragments talk and exhibition present the outcomes of two parallel processes the artist worked on during his residency. The first was a study on clay, fragments and vertical motion. With this study, Shammas wanted to investigate complexities in the motion of elements that move in parallel lanes and against gravity. In this case, it’s combined with clay fragments and microsound, but in the future, the mechanism developed can be used on a suspended musical instrument. The study resulted in a large kinetic sculpture which will be showcased in the exhibition.

In parallel, Shammas worked on an introduction to his new string instrument, which will be developed in 2023. This is an ambitious project as it involves a very large structure that is meant to be suspended from ceilings. The work done involves a preliminary design, scale models and prototypes on a 1:1 scale, which will be also part of the exhibition. What connects the two projects is the way they utilise weights, gravity and kinetics.

Strings and Fragments

Talk and exhibition by Mihalis Shammas. February 2. CYENS – Thinker Maker Space, Nicosia. 6.30pm-8.30pm. www.makerspace.cyens.org.cy