'Ariana Papademetropoulos in conversation about LA, painting and telepathy' Interview on the occasion of 'Glass Slipper', the artist's first solo exhibition in France
By Marthe Mabille
To enter the mystical world of Californian artist Ariana Papademetropoulos, you must step inside the Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, in the heart of the Marais. Upon entering, a gigantic aquarium immediately catches the eye. At its center, filled with fish and featuring an inviting lounger, it instantly captivates. Around it, large-format paintings adorn the gallery's white walls. Drawn in by the installation, one is tempted to immerse oneself in the experience: slipping into the aquarium, stretching out on the lounger, and adjusting the headphones provided. Dreamlike music fills the air as your gaze follows the fish dancing in the slightly murky water. By gently turning your head, you can simultaneously admire the artist's canvases through the water and the glass wall, highlighting their almost liminal nature. Gradually, the impression of slipping into a parallel, fantastical universe takes hold.
The exhibition's title, Glass Slipper, is far from insignificant: it evokes Cinderella's glass slipper and, by extension, the fairytale's enchantment. The aquarium itself recalls Snow White's glass coffin, reinforcing this feeling of poetic strangeness. On the first floor, Ariana Papademetropoulos unveils three iridescent, shell-shaped telephone booths, inspired by those that once existed at the Tropicana Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas. By picking up the receiver, the visitor is immersed in conversations between the artist and her psychic, extending the exhibition's reflections on therapy, ritual, and transformation. Like a whisper, both intimate and distant, these conversations engage in a dialogue with a new series of paintings, revealing the unexpected magic of everyday life. To try and unravel these mysteries, we met with the artist herself during her visit to Paris.
Vogue: Where does your passion for painting come from?
Ariana Papademetropoulos: Actually, it’s the only thing I’ve ever done, so I never really questioned it. It was pretty much the only thing I was good at, or at least, the only thing I wasn’t bad at. It just became obvious.
You grew up in Los Angeles. Does the energy of that city influence your work?
Yes, absolutely. In Los Angeles, you kind of create your own reality. It’s a place that leaves a lot of room for dreaming. [...]
The exhibition explores domestic spaces and everyday rituals, particularly those related to the female experience. What kind of world are you trying to create?
I try to reveal the mystical in the ordinary. Things we take for granted but which are actually quite magical. A microwave, for example, is an incredible object. A telephone allows us to talk to someone on the other side of the world. We forget how extraordinary all of this is. I try to recapture that perspective, that feeling of strangeness and wonder.
Is there a must-see piece in the exhibition?
The aquarium. It's inspired by Korean spas in Los Angeles, where you receive water-based treatments, like scrubs or massages. I wanted this piece to transform, and in a way heal, the viewer. When you're in the aquarium, you're both the observer and the observed. You lie down, you're being cared for… I imagined this piece as a kind of ultimate treatment.
The bed often appears in your work. We already saw it in your film My Only Desire, presented at the Louvre Museum in 2023. Why this object?
The bed is a space of dreams and security, of chaos but within a cocoon, like a chrysalis, a kind of intimate refuge. Here, it is also linked to the idea of care, almost like a therapeutic machine. We enter it to feel better. There is also a soundtrack by Nicolas Godin from the French group Air that accompanies the work and immerses the viewer in a total experience. The music echoes the sensation of dreaming, where the sound draws you deeper and deeper into the abyss of the ocean, here used as a metaphor for the unconscious.
Water and the ocean are very present in your world. Where does this fascination come from?
Water is a material of transformation: liquid, ice, vapor… It is the element used in baptism. I feel very connected to it. Baths and spas: these are very ancient rituals, dating back to antiquity. In the exhibition, water also contributes to a balance between the elements and to this idea of existing in several worlds at once. We breathe air, but we can coexist with water.
This evokes that feeling of reconnecting with oneself, for example, when swimming in the sea.
Yes, absolutely. Nature is always good for you. Freud spoke of the “oceanic feeling,” this sensation of being connected to something larger than oneself. It’s both calming and dizzying. [...]
What attracts you to Surrealism?
I like Surrealism, but in this exhibition I think I’m getting closer to reality. I’m trying to show how strange reality already is. You only have to observe everyday life to see something extraordinary in it. [...]
Your paintings are beautiful, but also sometimes slightly unsettling. Is that intentional?
Yes, I like to be on that line between the beautiful and the disturbing, between the everyday and the mystical. It's a question of balance. I also want the work to remain open, so that everyone can project their own interpretation onto it. [...]
Translated from French
