Exhibition Copy: Roula Partheniou, Party Room

Sculptural installation. 2024, Paint on wood and MDF, cast resin and glass, foam, polymer clay, paper, drill bit.

A series of stray balloons dot Lowrie Street, lodged inside a salon, notary office, pizza place, residence and elementary school. The source of these wayward party favors is revealed to be a fish-bowl style party room, the kind you might find in a neighbourhood cinema or play facility. A surprise-party of sorts, the sprawling banquet table is comprised entirely of meticulously rendered gifts, hats, snacks, cake, confectionary and other party paraphernalia, ranging from detailed to reductive sculptural copies.

Party Room expands on Roula Partheniou's exploration of the potential of the replica. Her work distills the language of everyday objects to map the ways that we read and decipher our environment. Banal household items are meticulously rendered in a variety of materials at a 1:1 scale, and are carefully composed within larger installations, typically comprised of hundreds of objects. In these installations, the objects work collaboratively: although each component is modelled on a particular real-life counterpart, the focus isn’t veracity or virtuosity of likeness - rather, the replica is employed as a useful tool to distill how we visually construct meaning and deduce narrative through material culture.