{"id":734375,"date":"2026-06-13T16:47:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T16:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/734375\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T16:47:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T16:47:21","slug":"between-worlds-between-kilns-neos-kosmos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/734375\/","title":{"rendered":"Between worlds, between kilns – Neos Kosmos"},"content":{"rendered":"

The unspokenness of being between cultures \u2014 landscapes, identities \u2014 is what many in the Greek-Australian community carry, particularly those in their late 50s and 60s. Those that were called \u2018wogs\u2019 and not in jest. They are that nexus between cultures \u2013 the confluence and contrasts \u2013 at times abrasive, deep and unspoken.<\/p>\n

It is this lived transference between and within that is at the centre of METAXI \u2013 Between, an exhibition at Damien Minton presents, Surry Hills, Sydney.<\/p>\n

METAXI brings together two artists whose practices, though divergent, are rooted in the same dialogue between Greek and Australian lives. Sydney-based artist, sound designer, curator and arts manager, Panos Couros joined Northern Rivers visual artist and ceramicist Nicholas Comino in an exhibition that is intimate, ancient and very contemporary \u2014 a meditation on memory, landscape and cultural transportation, syncretism and dialogue.<\/p>\n

\"\"Panos Couros (L) and Nicholas Comino (R) \u2014 *METAXI \u2013 Between*, Damien Minton presents, Surry Hills. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n

Born in Adelaide in 1960 to migrant parents, Couros has always been navigating the space between tradition and modernity, ritual and experimentation. The sound designer, composer and now, ceramicist, has a practice that over 30 years, spans theatre, film, installations and interactive works. His projects have been exhibited and performed nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n

Couros has recently begun to embed transducers into ceramic vessels to create sound-emitting sculptures that merge tactile and auditory experience \u2014 works that invite audiences to not only see and touch, but to feel sound as it vibrates through form. It is a reflection of the meditative ceramic bowl playing of Buddhists, born in ancient Indian and transfered to Greek mystics and oracles. The sounds of ancient Greek ceramic born civilisation, all the way to the Bronze Age.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

His work draws on deep wells of cultural memory. He melds traditional materials like terracotta with porcelain, and balances cultural tradition with contemporary design principles. Couros\u2019s pieces create what he says is a \u201cgraceful harmony \u2014 many voices becoming a choir.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is inspired by the \u201cintersection of the sacred and the secular,\u201d as he says.<\/p>\n

That narrative and dialogue runs through much of his body of work. Couros\u2019s landmark 2005 sound installation Omphalos saw seven two-metre-high ceramic urns each emit a mystical song sung by seven women\u2019s voices, surrounding a smaller urn from which the voice of Pythia spoke \u2014 a work that took four to five years to realise, including travelling to Delphi to record the sound of the Kastalian Spring.<\/p>\n

\"\"Couros has recently begun to embed transducers into ceramic vessels to create sound-emitting sculptures that merge tactile and auditory experience \u2014 works that invite audiences not only to see and touch, but also to hear. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n

Joining him is Nicholas Comino, came to ceramics through a captivation with surface and symbol. Drawn to inscribing forms on bowl surfaces, Comino shares with Couros a deep reverence for the mysterious and ancient transformation of the kiln \u2014 the anticipation of what colour will finally be revealed after firing. For Comino, the mythological resonates deeply: he looks to Zeus breathing life into clay as a reminder that ceramics are an ever-evolving examination through lifetimes.<\/p>\n

Together, these two artists become conduits for something ancient, deep and relevant now more than ever. A meditation and conversation through ceramics with our collective civilisations. Their work draws from Greek forms \u2014 their creative and cultural DNA. It is, in a way, a symbiotic relationship between humanity and earth \u2013 personal and universal.<\/p>\n

METAXI \u2013 Between is open until Saturday 13 June at Damien Minton presents, 50 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills, Sydney.<\/p>\n

Note: The exhibition closes this Saturday \u2014 visit before it ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The unspokenness of being between cultures \u2014 landscapes, identities \u2014 is what many in the Greek-Australian community carry,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-734375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}