The Flowers of Evil 2004-2006

The above title is attributed to the famous poems of Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) “Les Fleurs du Mal”.
It is a politically oriented conceptual series of works that critically explores the ambiguity of the image while asserting the power of art in recognizing human suffering. Despina Meimarolou has always had an intimate connection with projected and imprinted images, particularly those concerned with crime and violent political acts. Her main philosophy is ‘the alteration of reality’. The intention is often to reveal the lies of the seductively produced images masterfully presented by the media to deceptively obscure reality.
“I chose Baudelaire’s famous title for my present series the moment I set eyes on the photographs I had just shot of a beautiful bouquet of flowers offered to me by a friend while the war in Iraq was raging… Due to the angle from which I chose to shoot those particular pictures the flowers looked beautiful, colorful but extremely menacing at the same time… Suddenly, I was driven to size with the methods used by the media in order to canalize the public opinion… I strongly believe that reality is a very subjective matter” … writes Meimaroglou.