Eleni Ioakimidis
A Room Full of Things
1. After a double shift on Sunday, every Monday morning is the same. Wake up, black coffee, drive to Reverse Garbage in Marrickville. My routine for the last 8 months. I often have no real intention of what I am looking for, instead the objects find me. It’s bucketing rain outside and I am holding a 2 x 2 square piece of foam over my head, trying to stuff it into my Mazda 2. I will have to come back with a different car next week.
2. The shed at my parents' home is packed with tubs of my childhood memories; diaries, Pokémon cards, and books. I open a bag and find an old video camera and 6 VHS-C tapes. Watching a video of my mum dance to ‘Vaggelis Chi Kefia’ in what was the Pontian House in Earlwood, twirling tsifteteli in her black patent heels. She’s such a good dancer, moving her feet with ease. The guests can’t take their eyes off her.
3. I pick two black patent heels off the shelf at Rockdale Salvos, along with a floral pillow and a couple of other random knicknacks. At the counter the shop assistant is wrapping and packing the assortment of items I have bought.
“You’re probably wondering why I am so fast at packing. I used to work at the Tempe Salvos.”
Joy and I smile at each other.
“Are you two best friends or sisters?”
4. I walk from room to room, taking photographs of the empty spaces her body no longer lives in. The absence she leaves behind is heavy. Taking the photo makes the grief feel lighter even for a second. I take a shot of whisky as the doorbell rings another family member comes to the house to give their condolences.
5. I’m obsessed with the author Kevin Wilson. I have read all of his books. In the “Family Fang”, it follows a family of four, who are known for their chaotic public performances. It’s dark and comedic, you feel at once uncomfortable and shocked. His non-sensical approach to life and relationships is how I like to approach objects I find. In his other book, “Nothing to See Here” it follows a female protagonist who takes a random nannying job for her extremely wealthy old friend, who has two stepchildren. What follows is an unfolding of uncanny experiences as she discovers that when the children become upset, they literally catch on fire. The magically real undertone of his stories, reminds me of how I transform objects in a dream-like way, breaking constraints and making them my own.
6. My Yiaya and Papou would come over every Saturday to help us clean, a weekly chore that I was forced to do until the age of 17. Being Greek, the cleaning standards are high, and you never know when someone will come over unannounced. A week before they were due to leave for Greece, they came over as usual. When I answered the door, my Yiaya, looking stressed, and said to me,
“Your Papou shrunk my teeth, he’s ruined our holiday, we can’t go”.
With only my brother and I at home, we tried to understand how this could have happened. Both of our grandparents, now without dentures, told us they had used a new cleaning product to soak their teeth in overnight, and in the morning, their teeth did not fit. Hours had passed, we were on calls to numerous people to figure out how this happened, and we soon realised they had switched teeth.
Papou was no longer to blame.
7. I have placed the black patent heels in the corner of the gallery they sit on small blue tiles. The heels overtaken by amorphous, stone-like forms that appear to burst or melt from within the shoes. The heels, once a symbol of elegance, movement, and femininity, are weighed down by these organic, heavy shapes,evoking the emotional sediment of memory.
8. Every couple of months, when I have a day with little responsibility and no one to answer to, I give myself what I like to call a ‘Day off life’; to me, this means time does not exist, and I am free to experience the world as I wish. This day is not limited to, but includes shooting zombies at Timezone while playing House of the Dead, having a solo margarita at Bar Horizon at the top of Shangri-La, and lime biking around the city with no real destination. Just like Miranda July’s On All Fours, she finds herself turning off a highway and checking into a Motel, lying to her husband about her work trip. From here, she enters a web of lies, creating a false narrative for herself that she lives out as a form of escapism. Her desire to create another narrative for herself to shape shift into a new person living a double life.
9. Restless, I emerge from a dream at 3am. I am walking towards a jumping castle that is blowing in the wind. It is purple and yellow and sits slanted on a hill. Behind it are big green mountains and blue skys. I write this note in my phone. In Lauren Cook’s I Love Shopping, their stream of consciousness flows over the pages. Each has their own insight into their personal experience.
“Honestly, I’m in the mood to chop some wood, but there’s no wood to chop. I wake in the middle of the night to write down 'tamed grass”.
A dream can seep into the world around you.
10. I overheard that the Cyprus Club is closing down. An institution that has been in Enmore for the past 96 years, one where I spent many nights running around with my cousins, avoiding getting pulled on the dance floor, but eventually giving in to the deep glare from my Yiaya lifting me to my feet, catching the end of Zorba. According to the Greek Herald;
“For these members, the sale represents not just a financial transaction but the loss of a valuable cultural and community asset.”
Sometimes I think I could re - open it. But it sold for 50 million.
11. The chair sits next to my desk. People stare as they walk past, their faces confused and uncomfortable, they resist the urge to ask questions. The fabric is purple and velvet with the imprint of a flower in a repeated pattern. The kind of fabric you would find used in the good lounge room at your grandparents' house, with plastic covers over them to keep them clean. The fabric is pulled taught around the foam I found at Reverse Garbage.
12. My mum’s cough is getting bad. I tell her she needs to stop smoking.
“I know,”
She tells me, as she looks at me with a banana peel on her face,
“They’re frozen. It’s the best thing for your skin in the morning.”
A baby smiled at me in the doctor's waiting room. I swapped seats with a mother and her kids, so they could watch the television fixed up on the wall. The doctor asked me if it’s ok to use an AI generator to take notes and record our session. I’m screaming in the car on the way home, windows up, no one can hear me.
Wilson, Kevin. The Family Fang. New York: Ecco, 2011.
Wilson, Kevin. Nothing to See Here. New York: Ecco, 2019.
Cook, Lauren. I Love Shopping. New York: Glo worm Press, 2019
The Greek Herald. “Court Clears Way for Sale of Cyprus Community of NSW’s Stanmore Property.” The Greek Herald, August 22, 2025. Accessed September 29, 2025. https://greekherald.com.au/community/court-clears-way-for-sale-of-cyprus-community-of-nsws-stanmore-property/.