A selection of photography by Chris Kontos from our new book 'Marble in Metamorphosis'
Published in
Marble in Metamorphosis
A new narrative non-fiction essay by Rachel Cusk, with a photographic series by Chris Kontos of Kennedy Magazine.
A visual essay featuring a selection of photography by Chris Kontos from our new book Marble in Metamorphosis, including some unpublished outtakes.
Marble in Metamorphosis contemplates the physical and cultural life of marble. It explores the ethics, politics and symbolism of its use and deliberates over the spirit of the material and why some cultures so revere and desire it. In reflecting on the deep relationship between marble and human culture, it considers the social and historical function of the material throughout time.
Marble in Metamorphosis features a new essay on marble and its uses written by acclaimed novelist and writer Rachel Cusk, who – while on a trip to a marble bearing island in Greece’s Aegean sea – writes on the modern notion of classicism, the fate of monuments through history and the tension between classicism and realism in art and architecture. Chris Kontos’ of Kennedy Magazine photographic series explores two landscapes marked by marble and its uses: the island of Tinos, with its long tradition of marble mining and craft; and Athens, which has an ancient and enduring connection to marble evident in its ubiquitous presence throughout the city. These photographs tell a story of extraction, craft, tradition, and how meaning is made and remade through marble as a material in the city.
Image 1: A long view of the marble quarry in Panormos, 2018.
Image 2: Marble stacks and structures in Tinos, 2018.
Image 3: Walls of stacked marble outside of the hilltop village of Pyrgos, Tinos, 2018.
Image 4: A road-side marble bust in Tinos, 2018.
Image 5: Marble offcuts and dust, Tinos, 2018.
Image 6: A residential foyer laid with smoky-veined black marble tiles on Rigillis Street, Athens, 2018.
Image 7: Marble shelves for Athens Design Forum by Theodore Psychoyos.
Image 8: Tinos Oasis marble blocks against a marble wall at the Panormos quarry, 2018.
Image 9: A polykatoikia on Rigillis Street in the Rigillis district, Athens, 2018.
Image 10: Marble artworks and tools in the studio of Labros Diamantopoulos, Tinos, 2018.
Image 11: An ionic marble column in the National Archaelogical Museum, Athens.
Image 12: A marble sink, basin and tiles, Hydra.
