In Conversation: Christos Dikeakos and Emily Butler

At once archival and conceptual, these works reflect on the layered nature of history, the continual movement of cultures, and the enduring, shape-shifting presence of Greek mythology within present day life. These investigations led to the series Sites and Places: Vancouver  (1990-2015), a series that engages deeply with the pre-colonial histories of North America, while also probing the mythic and deep historical strata within a place. In parallel, Dikeakos has a long-standing fascination with collecting. The Collectors comprises a series of insightful portraits of artists, patrons, curators, writers and art lovers, which reveal the inside world of collections, providing a close view of the relationships that people forge with objects that fascinate them. Whether expansive urban landscapes or intimate scenes from orchards in the Oakanagan Valley, Dikeakos’ photographs foreground the multi-layered nature of reality and examine the semiotics of image and language and the interplay between memory and place.