CM: The art of Ioanna Terlidou is anthropocentric. In her work entitled Cherchez la Femme: Journey, Terlidou deals with the relationship between bride and suitors - the woman as target and men as arrows. "Cherchez la Femme" is a French phrase which literally means "Look for the Woman." The expression comes from the book Les Mohicans de Paris of 1854 by Alexandre Dumas, père (1802-1870). The phrase embodies a cliché of detective pulp fiction: no matter what the problem, a woman is often the root cause.
This work presents the abstract female head of a bride in the center and the black figures of suitors around it. The bride in standby mode protected peripherally by an inexplicable condition in blue color. The male population struggles to go through all sorts of adventures with orientation towards the bride. Without anything being clear, a number of various elements - a hill, a lake, a turbine, an avalanche, a dam, a bridge, a small cone - pose obstacles to their long journey. The sole female element is central, immobile and protected in contrast with the great number of male elements that are scattered, unstable and conflicting within situation of search and adventure. Beyond the specific iconography, the suitors are interesting cases for the endless experiences they gather and then remember about the woman, who perhaps is just a fantasy.
Terlidou intended the material to reference old reliefs and history to be insinuated through the materiality rather than illustration. Thus her Journey resembles a piece torn from somewhere, with its wear and age.
