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MARIA CHRISTOFORIDOU, ASSOCIATE LECTURER
E: maria.christoforidou@falmouth.ac.uk
T: +44 (0) 1326 211 077
Maria Christoforidou is an artist, writer and researcher. Maria was born in Zambia, grew up in Greece and has spent most of her adult life in the UK. The insoluble differences of these environments are powerful incentives toward theory. A lateral approach to critical theory of image, language and their combinations is the foundation of her practice. She uses research and collaboration in different formats – lectures, workshops, events, written and visual essays, publishing – to explore the political, physical and performative implications of writing and photography.
Maria is motivated by a persistent interest in metaphor as a tool that exposes ‘not so obvious’ or even secret connections. A tool to move you away from the centre, to express the unspeakable knots of Otherness, to question the neutrality of various canons, to expand spheres of activity and interest. This attitude finds fertile ground in her current research in the Afro European feminist discussions of intersectionality, voice, hybridity, decolonisation, and revaluation of the intertextual role images play in forming identities.
Maria first came to Cornwall to study and she is now forever tied to the sea. She joined Falmouth University in 2016 after working for 4 years in Plymouth University.
RESEARCH
Research interests and expertise:
My practice involves writing, printed or spoken, accompanied by my ‘amateurish’ photography and film. I have an interest in chance and anything that takes one away from the centre, the normal, the accepted: metaphor, multiplicity, complication, illusion, lies, dreams, magic, damage, unfinished, mistakes. Also, an obsession with systems of accumulating, enumerating, categorising objects and information: museums, archives, archaeology. I most often work in collaboration with others. I am one third of Various Writing, an art research cluster that investigating acts of writing. I was co-curator of Decalcomania, a collaborative curatorial project. For the T – Rex Cinema, an experimental art cinema in a rural community setting in collaboration with Martyn Ridgewell, and as the lead curator and producer of the first Penryn Arts Festival 2013, Cornwall. I was also part of the founding team of FOMO Arts Publishing Fair.
Research topics:
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PUBLICATIONS AND OUTPUTS
Article:
- Ridout, Lizzie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8140-8272, Christoforidou, Maria and Star, Dion (2018) Various Writings: Chapter 1 (Research Catalogue Exposition published in RUUKKU). RUUKKU: Studies in Artistic Research, 8. ISSN 2341-9687
- Ridout, Lizzie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8140-8272 (2013) An Essay Concerning the Architecture of Conversation. Message, 1 (1). pp. 24-33. ISSN 978-184102-347-2
Conference and workshop outcomes:
- Christoforidou, Maria, Ridout, Lizzie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8140-8272 and Star, Dion (2017) Various Writings: Chapter Two. In: MIX 2017: Writing Digital, 10-12th July 2017, Bath Spa University, Newton Park Campus.
- Christoforidou, Maria, Ridout, Lizzie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8140-8272 and Star, Dion (2017) Various Writings: Chapter One. In: Please Specify! The Society of Artistic Research’s annual conference, 28/29 April 2017, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland.
- Christoforidou, Maria, Ridout, Lizzie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8140-8272 and Star, Dion (2016) Various Writings: CAST Residency. In: Various Writings: CAST Residency, 6-11th February 2017, CAST, Helston, Cornwall, UK.
Projects:
- Ridout, Lizzie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8140-8272 and Star, Dion(2017) The School of Various Writings: What is Writing?
Other:
- Wylde, Gillian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5436-0771, Shapiro, Carolyn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2987-8111, Christoforidou, Maria and Chapman, Neil ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8253-0256 (2017) FOMO: Falmouth Art Publishing Fair 2017. UNSPECIFIED.
Events:
| Year | Description |
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2011
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Decalcomania Curatorial Experiment |
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2013
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Penryn Arts Festival |
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2013
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In Flux |
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2014
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Far Out and Further Away |
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2016
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‘The Other – Penryn’ Reimagine Your Town / Penryn |
TEACHING
Areas of teaching:
- Art Histories and Theories
- Critical Theories
- Feminist Studies
- Art practice
Courses taught at Falmouth:
- Fine Art BA(Hons)
- Illustration BA(Hons)
- Graphic Design BA(Hons)
PROFESSIONAL ENGAGEMENT
Independent professional practice:
Similis Publication / Visual Essay in collaboration with Martyn Ridgewell. Re – Map 4, Athens
http://remapkm.org/4/projects/%E2%80%A2sensual-abstraction-a-la-belle-etoile-a-collaborative-project-by-aliki-panagiotopoulou-and-alexandros-tzannis/
10 Dreams To Get There. Essay Contribution for “To arrive where we started…” Publication
What We Have Done, What We Are About To Do, Exhibition, Glasgow CCA
