“fragments”
Nicky Tsekouras
18 Mar → 6 Apr 2023

Nicholas Teskouras, 'fragments', 2023, installation view, West Space, Collingwood Yards. Photography by Janelle Low.

Developed for the West Space Window, fragments is a series of repurposed street posters by Nicky Tsekouras. Walking around Collingwood and Fitzroy each day, Nicky is drawn to fallen posters, recontextualising them within a practice founded upon ideas around waste, property and the commodification of public space under late-stage Capitalism.

Through the erasure and puncturing of the surface of these advertising posters, Nicky reveals personal narratives through collage, drawing, painting and embellishment. The works are inherently personal, formed on the basis of the artist’s reflections on their experience as a queer, non-binary, white and young member of the community.

fragments expands outside of the Window to occupy the balcony area outside West Space. This work carries the material trace of collaboration between Nicky and young people from the local Yarra Youth Services, as part of their work as an artist in residence at the centre. During the graffiti program, Nicky offered these offcuts as a surface upon which participants could paint.

These works further the artist’s interest in sustainable art practice, and troubles notions of private ownership tied up in property and historic understandings of the art object. The use of aerosol also draws similarities to how one might have originally encountered these posters on the street, while offering a glimpse into the aesthetic world of the youth participants.

fragments is supported by City of Yarra and developed in collaboration with Yarra Youth Services.

A person stands in front of the west space window. Inside the the window is a collection of collages. The person in front of the window is also wearing these collages on their clothes. They are dressed in black with orange shoes

Nicky Tsekouras is an emerging, queer and multi-disciplinary artist concerned with ideas of expression, late capitalism, community and sustainability. Their practice features a deep desire for personal identity dissection and discussion through colourful and captivating outlets. Ideas explored include queerness, expression, late capitalism, sustainability and the human condition. Disruption of conventional art-making practices is increasingly becoming more prevalent as they explore new ways of navigating and responding to their surroundings and prioritising sustainable and found materials.