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In many of his works, Constanze Zikos draws from geometric shapes and forms associated with the classical aesthetic. In re-contextualising these forms, Constanze reclaims his Greek identity and relocates his heritage in contemporary Australia. His work expresses an awareness of current issues, relating to cultural identity and explores the place of decorative traditions in contemporary art practice.

His compositions are crafted from cut-out materials and he intentionally leaves the mark of his handcrafted works in such traces as the inked lines of a patternmaker and exposed stitching. This is in contrast to the often slick and lustrous texture of his materials. The exploration of the processes of cut-out and pattern-making employed by Constanze draw inspiration from the domestic and working environments shared by his own and other Greek emigrant families in Melbourne.

Constanze's works in this exhibition constitute a shift – represented by the appearance of a figure, but one which appears mostly through absence, outline, or a 'trace effect'. It is something which is there but is also missing. Nikos suggests that this quality invokes the relationship between distance and representation (is it the nature of the sign or image that its subject is always absent, or abstracted). This reference is perhaps confirmed as an intention of the artist by Constanze's naming of the semiotician Roland Barthes as a source of inspiration.

The processes of extraction and repetition invent and reinvent the bodily form. The silhouette is refashioned over and over to create many faces, exploring at once the creation of identity and the reflectiveness and plasticity of the surface, reflecting back at us an ill defined world of flat colour and shape. The viewer becomes a part of this abstraction. Our forms become abstracted in the surface reflection of the plastic.