A book shop in a fixed spot is where ‘stationery’ derives its name – referring to any products sold by a ‘stationer’, rather than an itinerant bookseller. For her sixth solo exhibition with MKG127, Roula Partheniou uses the term Stationery Object as a stand in for ‘still life’, with the inanimate objects that make up her careful compositions consisting entirely of replicated office supplies. A still life is one of the first lessons a student will be tasked with when learning to paint – the objective of the exercise being to detach the idea of the humble object from its formal properties and translate it into pure colour, in a way that somehow describes its essence. Fundamentally, it’s an exercise in learning to see.

Often deconstructing art tropes, Partheniou’s practice employs the replica as a tool for evoking the experience of perception through the deconstruction and contemplation of common everyday objects.  Rendered mostly in acrylic paint on wood, compositions exist in three dimensions functioning as trompe l’oeil in the round. Yielding to found formal properties such as shape, size, pattern and colour, each composition is led by the constraints inherent to the object itself, while drawing out visual puns and revelling in material play.

Roula Partheniou’s largely sculptural practice centers on an exploration of the replica, calling into question the language of everyday objects and the ways that we read and decipher our environment. Her installations, which are often site-specific, utilize mechanisms such as optical illusion, associative play, visual similes, material puns, colour cues and the double-take, to draw an alternate logic from commonplace materials. The replica is employed as a tool to deconstruct the experience of perception; the difference between what we see and what we think we see, is central to her practice.