slake
a Byzantine lattice is
daring a honeycomb
over the street below.
in its doorway sits
a reservoir faint with turbulence, stained
beneath the surface with oxide.
the house turns
inwards, towards
its interior made of salt.
and what of its dimensions?
a labyrinth spins
in a pale mineral cup.
time centrifuge, timeplasma.
on the hill
a dome turns verdigris
while sitting on four
eyelids slaked with lime.
the adult lamb being led by
cries into these cataracts of sound, begging
the architecture for more than a chorus.
over brushed metal
food passes between hands
as swiftly as laughter can turn
on the pivot of a dare
before the leap
before a fall, to
a conclusion
or looser soils.
the shepherd
just turned fourteen
straddles his fresh sacrifice.
driving an iron down the foreleg, he
cleaves flesh from fleece, which
he then inflates like a balloon.
a gentle flossrip as layers
come apart, and five cuts
set the fleece free.
finally
drawn off
and draped, the
garment has no senses.
the soil darkens
beneath his labour, to
witness what grows.
this leaf, this
branch, this
plant is a migrant also.
this stem, this
curlicued ear
houses history, and
is eaten
by those who live
in history’s houses.
the plateau
of another faith
extends its dry hem
to a Frey.
and the desert turns away
from its beloved
showing the length of its spine
enough to recall them back again
and dare over, again.
—Tarik Ahlip
Tarik Ahlip is an artist with a background in Architecture. His practice is mainly sculptural, informed by an interest in language and poetry.
Elena Papanikolakis’ practice utilises painting, collage, text, photography, and drawing to explore the abstraction and suggestion of narrative. Informing her works are fragments of characters, events or scenes gathered from archives of personal and found material. Her practice pivots between representation and abstraction and is concerned with exploring the construction and deconstruction of understanding via painted spaces, words, and photo-based imagery.
Elena received the Ursula Hoff Institute Award for Postgraduate excellence in Visual Art and Music, as part of the National Works on Paper Prize at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (2018); the Art Gallery of New South Wales Paris Studio, the Eva Breuer Travelling Art Scholarship and NAVA’s NSW Artists’ Grant (2016); and has undertaken numerous residencies including the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2017) and Parramatta Artist Studios, Sydney (2014–2016).
Elena’s work has been curated into numerous exhibitions including: Primavera 2017: Young Australian Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Parramatta Artist Studios at Artspace, Sydney, New Sacred at Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman and Young Moderns at Penrith Regional Gallery, Penrith.
Recent exhibitions include: The John Fries Award 2019: There is Fiction in the Spaces Between, curated by Miriam Kelly, UNSW Galleries, Sydney (June, 2019); Light Matter at Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney (August, 2019).
Then, closer is Elena’s debut solo exhibition at ReadingRoom.