“The porcupines and other stories of intimacy” by the photographer Olga Tzimou is an exploratory meditation on the concept of intimacy in a personal and intuitive way. In this uncanny parallel universe of disastrous mating and traumatic unions, the characters’ attempts at closeness only enhance their sense of isolation.
With the urge to abide by the myth of becoming “one,” the emotional and physical weight of closeness becomes cumbersome and bulky. The burden of childhood shadows and personal demons is transferred onto the loved one in awkward embrace or thorny gesture. The themes explore the boundaries of intimacy through a bizarre confrontation that makes the familiar seem hostile or even dangerous, asking: “In this world of self-imposed isolation, is to share to injure?”.
