Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery is happy to present David Sampethai’s solo exhibition I Ain’t Dead, Just Trying To Hear The Sound Of The Earth Spinning Part II, which opens on Wednesday 22 May at Asklipiou 5 in Piraeus.  The exhibition, along with Part I at the space of the gallery in Kolonaki, will be on display until the 30th of June.

Part II of the exhibition comprises a series of large paintings created between 2020 and 2024. Inhabiting the space of an old nightclub, the paintings are arranged in two rows that run through it, creating an interzone where multiple narratives unfold.  A knight returns to the king’s court bearing bad news; in another painting he is seen washing his aching feet in a little stream while his fantasies of returning home sleepily occupy the nocturnal landscape around him.   A couple is pictured in a scene of domestic bliss, while a gang of mischievous- looking creatures guard off external forces that threaten this intimate ecosystem of love.  A snake is looking at an ominous view framed by tree branches, a silent witness to something terrible that will occur out in the horizon any moment now. Referencing each other, as well as the works on paper from Part I, and in a constant dialogue with the history of painting, these paintings are stages where various subtle powerplays operate and swan songs of different worlds sing out.  

Perhaps echoing the eerie standstill the outside world seemed to be in during ‘20-‘21, the works exude a strange silence. Sometimes carefree or comforting, the silence frames scenes of intimacy. Other times, silence hides a subject's intentions or indicates tension building up. While silence prevails, it is full of longing and tenderness, defeated or dejected, magic and enchanted, ominous and apocalyptic.

The title of the exhibition itself hints towards this silence. We can imagine a figure lying down, with its ear on the ground, eagerly waiting for a sign that the Earth is indeed still spinning, waiting for that comforting, reassuring hum that lets us know the world is still going. The title operates as a humorous declaration and a sort of parable. A declaration that yes, the artist is alive and you cannot separate the artist from the world. A parable, implying that unless one stays completely still once in a while, the world goes unnoticed.