Marble and Mud _{by Alessia Belsito-Riera}

Like the good theia (aunty) Eleftheria Apostolidis aspires to be, she welcomes guests to sit with her over Greek coffee during the opening hours of her exhibition Marble and Mud at Thistle Hall from the 22^nd to the 27^th of April.

“Marble and Mud is a creative manifestation of my identity examined under the lens of my Greek whakapapa,” Apostolidis says. “Years of exploring my relationship with my heritage and upbringing have brought rise to the same core themes with an undeniable flow, be it in icons, colours, symbols, or sound.”

A collage of her multidisciplinary practice, the exhibition layers storytelling and installation with visual art, traversing artistic domains and spanning everything from mixed media and textiles to writing, projection, and performance art. Each work is connected through the common experience of “other” and “longing”, the artist adds. Hoping visitors will leave with a feeling of curiosity, “be it about their whakapapa, personal cycles, or creative voice”, Apostolidis says she will lean into her culture of hospitality to spark conversation and connection.

She will also be sharing her creative flow with two workshops in which participants can craft a beaded evil eye protection charm.

“My experience of self within the Greek diaspora is layered with love and pain, beauty and rejection,” Apostolidis says. “My gender, sexuality, purpose, and ways of being both clash in conflict and yearn in longing for home. Processing inherited trauma, internalised colonisation, and cultural displacement currently sits in a dreamscape of classical pop art, stories from the village, and where I find myself between the Marble and Mud.”