O-1 Visas
The spectrum of coerced intimacy ranges from societal niceties—the obligation to hug an unbeloved auntie—to the truly terrible. It is the latter that comes to mind while contemplating Kyriakos Praskevopoulos’s 2025 artwork “Forced Acts of Affection.” The installation consists of plaster sculptures arranged on an even ground of black and white sand, carefully poured to create a distinct geometric configuration that would be destroyed were anyone to walk on it. At center, four rough panels lean against one another to form a tent that could fall at any time, its sides punched through with irregular, red-tinged holes that give the impression of having been produced injuriously. Tautly strung rope appears to reinforce the shelter but doesn’t at all. Off to the sides, castoffs pile up, lumpy objects with dirty surfaces and the occasional uncannily smooth side. Paraskevopoulos made these by pouring plaster into snow, allowing gravity to mold lasting shapes where otherwise there would be nothing but a void. As in metaphor, so in life.
—Lori Waxman 8/3/26 11:24 AM