With their background in the art field extending significantly over time, including performances under the artistic name The Callas, participations in exhibitions, issuing their magazine Velvet, and the publication of the Athens Map of Contemporary Art, artists Lakis and Aris Ionas present LIPSTICK at AMP as their first solo show on Thursday, 18th of December 2008.

In this exhibition a collage of references to popular architecture, rock ’n’ roll stereotypes and “do it yourself” patterns is translated into a series of hand-made embroideries and clothes, and an installation made by plastic crates; moreover, an in situ installation with graffitis, sketches and constructions will be worked upon for two weeks at the lower level of the gallery. The opening of the exhibition will see their new collection of clothes presented with the performance “Ciccada Fuzz”.

The large-scale mural embroideries refer to decorative heat-insulating needlework found in folk culture, and to rock ’n’ roll stitches for jeans and leather jackets. Their naming borrows from song titles and lyrics by The Callas, while they have references to tattoo culture blended with the sketches on the embroideries. The cratehouse, as a construction, has its roots in the Do It Yourself, lo-fi, vernacular architecture, as well as in notions of simplicity and beauty we come across to in countryside buildings. The clothes are unique hand-made pieces; their sketches reveal the artists’ visual predilection of girls around them, as well as their influences by music album covers, party posters, gigs, fanzines, and street & club culture. Each piece of clothing has its own name (Bass Blood, Psychocandy, Crystal Castle, Selfish Cunt, Queen Bee, I’ll follow you Down, Blitz Kidz). The dresses will be presented by the Callasettes carrying children cassette players meaningfully set to echo sounds of cicadas: a psychedelic soundspace will thus be created, an original auditory instance meant to combine the familiar sound of summer with art punk music experimentations.

The exhibition catalogue is accompanied by the single “Lipstick” in seven-inch vinyl format, presented just before the release of The Callas’ second album.