A new installation titled Glass Slipper at Thaddaeus Ropac is the first solo exhibition by Ariana Papademetropoulos in France. The event features paintings, sculptures, and installations, including one with an interactive aquarium.

Interactive Art Exhibition

At the beginning of the exhibition, two oil paintings installed in the antechamber feature transparent dry-cleaning bags rendered in detail, including creases and shifting light. They also seem to cling to imaginary human figures, representing the idea of presence and absence.

Perhaps the biggest draw, however, is the immersive aquarium enclosure. Recalling esoteric therapy chambers, the installation, titled Water Based Treatment, also includes a soundtrack that can only be heard when a visitor is lying inside. The soundtrack is composed based on 1970s ambient sound therapy tapes by Nicolas Godin of the French music duo Air.

Surrounding the aquarium are Papademetropoulos’s new paintings, which collapse interior and exterior settings. Dining chairs emerge from clouds of volcanic gases above lava or through the eye of a tornado, representing how the comfort of home can be disrupted by powerful forces of nature. Human figures are absent from the paintings, again alluding to the theme of absence.

The aquarium itself is full of a freshwater species known as ‘kissing fish’, which have a shimmering, mirror-like quality. When a visitor is lying in the immersive piece, the movement of the reflective fish impacts their perception of the surrounding paintings.

“Entering and lying down in the enclosure inside this underwater environment, the viewer’s anthropocentric vision is destabilized, inviting them into a reflection on Umwelt and on the possibility of alternative sensory realities,” said a statement on the museum’s website.

Sculptures of vintage, shell-shaped payphones represent the conversations between the artist and her psychic medium, recalling the childlike feeling of holding up a seashell to your ear. These sculptures are accompanied by paintings of burning microwave ovens in various stages of destruction.

The title of the exhibition, which runs through April 11, pays tribute to the event’s imaginative, fairy-tale atmosphere by alluding to Cinderella’s glass slipper.