The Upward Spiral is a window installation by Ketta Ioannidou at chashama’s 266 window gallery. Ioannidou uses multicolored vinyl forms to assemble a large-scale swirl of vines that will overtake the entire window, creating a vortex that draws the viewer into a cycle of pleasure and decay.

Colored lights shining on the window evoke a vision of an artificial setting and create a disparate, yet idealistic experience of space. Resembling industrialized biomorphic organisms, Ioannidou’s vines are a reinterpretation of the natural landscape. The Upward Spiral develops a correlation between the phenomena of the physical world and synthetic, human design, while creating an idealized habitat that blurs the line between actual and illusionistic space.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

chashama’s programs are made possible by the generous support of: the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York City Council, Carnegie Corporation, Dramatist Guild Fund, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Tides Foundation and through private donations from individuals.