The artist embarked on an interactive project which questions the hierarchies and symbolism in the history of art and the art world. Her first “Dialogue” refers to a work’s impact […]. Her “Just what is it that makes today works so different, so appealing, so big?” (1956) Papadimitriou appropriates this image and by blowing it up from 26 x 25 cm to 200 x 160 cm restores to the original the size it has acquired in the course of time. Richard Hamilton’s collage, which is not an exhibit but design for the catalogue and the poster for “This is Tomorrow,” an exhibition organised by the Independent Group at the Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1956, is generally considered to be the first pop art “icon.” Papadimitriou, by using an image which belongs to a shared repertoire of knowledge, enacts the role of a mythologist who relies on the repetition of concepts through various forms: a process which allows her to decipher myths.

Helena Papadopoulos

Excerpts from “What is it that Makes Contemporary Artworks so Attractive?” The Art Magazine, p. 67.