Stelios Manganis holds a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Art and a PhD in Fine Art. He has been awarded a doctoral competion award by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council and research grants by the European Union and the Experimental Psychology Society. He created commissioned works for social organizations and galleries such as Modern Art Gallery of Oxford. Now, he works as a mixed-media Artist and Researcher in Oxford.
His practice involves the use of mechanisms in contemporary installations, sculpture and performance, to investigate one’s changing perception of what machines represent and how technology can connect man with his environment: in particulary, he examines how sounds and movements could affect the viewers’ thinking process, artistic precoceptions and emotional predisposition. He analyses the paradox concerning the possibility of employing technology so as to come even closer to what is human and natural. Through dismantling and rebuilding he creates surreal macchines, which evoke a latent and thought-provoking subtext.
Art Is Just My Pastime is deep linked to the concept of imprisonment: the constant swinging of the clock hand and repetive sound of this pounding motion evoke a frustrating sensation of stillness, inability to move beyond past.
