Book launch: AMPHORAE by Anna Kiosse

On Thursday, 18 June, 8 p.m. Hyper Hypo is thrilled to invite you to the launch of its latest publication Amphorae: An Incomplete Compendium of Non-Ancient Greek Vessels by artist Anna Kiosse.

Amphorae: An Incomplete Compendium of Non-Ancient Greek Vessels by Anna Kiosse takes everything you think you know about the hallowed ancient ceramics and turns it upside down. 157 unique drawings of decidedly NON-ancient vessels, that started simply as “a way to fill blank pages”, brimming with all the colours of the spectrum, with shapes inspired by antiquity and others that have just come from Anna’s head. Phrases like “Go with the flow” “Nothing Lasts Forever” “Love Me Harder” “I wish I was special” “YOLO” “Can I Pet Your Dog?” may sound like the ravings of a mad poet, the words scrawled on a bathroom stall or in a teenager’s diary, but scribbled across the revered shapes of the ancients, they become the little works of genius for today.

In prehistoric and Ancient Greece, amphorae were originally used simply as transport and storage vessels. Later, amphorae became more and more decorative, made to be displayed. Their distinctive handles and oblong shape became a literal canvas for some of the most talented artists/illustrators of antiquity. Now imagine if those same artisans were creating today. Make them pop with colour, draw them with lines that are raw and punk, add phrases which shout out your feelings, whisper in your lover’s ear, or stumble over drunken lyrics you sing with your friends.

This unique, joyous mishmash erupts out of the hands and spirit of Anna Kiosse, the artist, illustrator, ceramicist, graphic designer, author (she calls herself a Swiss army knife) behind Amphorae.