I’m a Polish woman artist living in South London. I have a deep obsession with colours, shapes and closing my personal memories/experiences in a physical form; it makes me feel as if I can bottle time up in a painting.
Artist Statement
UPDATED 26/02/22
Why am I so interested in everyday life and the experience of it? At times, it feels like a rather unique fascination but other times it makes me think that many of us are finding it extraordinary. Extraordinary in a sense that each of us, each of those billions of people on the planet are living the same day but that day is completely different for each of us. We all feel things differently and see through our eyes in a different light. Our senses are wired in the same but distinct way. All the events that we go through and feel through tend to be forgotten after we die. In fact, some of them tend to be erased from our memory months, weeks, days or even hours after the event. Therefore, how do we revisit those emotions of the past, how do we re-kindle them not only in our brains but also in our physicality?
This is what I’m essentially trying to do, I am bottling up those memories in the form of paintings. They become the carriers, the traces of felt emotions, lived through moments that I can see in front of my eyes whenever I look at my work. I am the only person who can view the image of myself painting the artwork at the time - what setting I was in, what my mood was on that day, what day it was, was I listening to music, was I sitting down, standing up, crouching? Those paintings are often mash ups of recent events, my most felt emotions during that time, things that have happened to me, places/people I was surrounded by or simply shapes/colours I have been fascinated with recently. They portray my life during a certain period of time, secretly closing in what I’ve been through.
Why am I so interested in everyday life and the experience of it? At times, it feels like a rather unique fascination but other times it makes me think that many of us are finding it extraordinary. Extraordinary in a sense that each of us, each of those billions of people on the planet are living the same day but that day is completely different for each of us. We all feel things differently and see through our eyes in a different light. Our senses are wired in the same but distinct way. All the events that we go through and feel through tend to be forgotten after we die. In fact, some of them tend to be erased from our memory months, weeks, days or even hours after the event. Therefore, how do we revisit those emotions of the past, how do we re-kindle them not only in our brains but also in our physicality?
This is what I’m essentially trying to do, I am bottling up those memories in the form of paintings. They become the carriers, the traces of felt emotions, lived through moments that I can see in front of my eyes whenever I look at my work. I am the only person who can view the image of myself painting the artwork at the time - what setting I was in, what my mood was on that day, what day it was, was I listening to music, was I sitting down, standing up, crouching? Those paintings are often mash ups of recent events, my most felt emotions during that time, things that have happened to me, places/people I was surrounded by or simply shapes/colours I have been fascinated with recently. They portray my life during a certain period of time, secretly closing in what I’ve been through.
PAST
Shapes and colours. To me, the entire world is made up of intricate geometric forms that are waiting to be taken away and closed inside a purely abstract piece of art - a creation as “an end in itself”
(Malevich). The extraction of shapes from everyday surroundings and one’s automatic movements in the form of blind drawings are the essence of my current practice. An almost spiritual connection of my intuition towards objects that are yet to be submerged in colour, generates the physicality of my paintings. This instinctive approach to choosing materials and their construction can be recognised in the process of my Fragmental objects. Primarily created as a composition, they were made alongside one another, influencing each other’s appearance, at the same time, being affected by the space around them. As a result, I became conscious of the significance of relation. Mondrian himself stated, “A colour exists only through another colour, a dimension is defined by another dimension, there is no position except in opposition to another position.”
Inspired by Kandinsky, I desire to understand the relationship between composition within an artwork and how that affects the one looking at it. The physicality of art as well as the process of creation itself overpowers the artificial concept one might have before an artwork comes to be; the materials used in its formation will naturally drive its meaning, causing the ultimate “death of an artist”. Authorship is a rather complicated but equally fascinating concept to me. I am a strong believer that the “degree zero” of art making allows for the most freedom, and the most authentic experience of art - the viewer should be unrestrained to form a deep, personal connection with an artwork. Thus, I strive to explore various ways of making that experience more upfront.
“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” has been a driving force of mine questioning the representation of art as well as how that affects the audience - art relationship and its aura. Conflicting with Benjamin’s notion, to me, an aura of an art piece can only be transformed, not destroyed and is, therefore, heavily dependent on the space it finds itself in. This theory has been examined by me in the experimental project AURA, where I conveyed the change in aura through my sculpture’s shift of the setting.
Additionally, I have been fairly occupied with the theme of relationships as an end result of art making. Influenced by Buren, I now see the space surrounding a piece of art as an intertwined part of the entire experience; not only does the environment affect an artwork due to its context, it’s very likely for art to incorporate the host space into itself. This integration further connects to Dezeuze’s focus on the
“painting’s physical support”, thus, an exploration of contrast between a painting and a sculpture. It’s moderately difficult to strictly separate the aspects of a sculptural piece of art and a painting - a canvas could equally be regarded as a three dimensional object. How much could the two dimensions be blurred?
Shapes and colours. To me, the entire world is made up of intricate geometric forms that are waiting to be taken away and closed inside a purely abstract piece of art - a creation as “an end in itself”
(Malevich). The extraction of shapes from everyday surroundings and one’s automatic movements in the form of blind drawings are the essence of my current practice. An almost spiritual connection of my intuition towards objects that are yet to be submerged in colour, generates the physicality of my paintings. This instinctive approach to choosing materials and their construction can be recognised in the process of my Fragmental objects. Primarily created as a composition, they were made alongside one another, influencing each other’s appearance, at the same time, being affected by the space around them. As a result, I became conscious of the significance of relation. Mondrian himself stated, “A colour exists only through another colour, a dimension is defined by another dimension, there is no position except in opposition to another position.”
Inspired by Kandinsky, I desire to understand the relationship between composition within an artwork and how that affects the one looking at it. The physicality of art as well as the process of creation itself overpowers the artificial concept one might have before an artwork comes to be; the materials used in its formation will naturally drive its meaning, causing the ultimate “death of an artist”. Authorship is a rather complicated but equally fascinating concept to me. I am a strong believer that the “degree zero” of art making allows for the most freedom, and the most authentic experience of art - the viewer should be unrestrained to form a deep, personal connection with an artwork. Thus, I strive to explore various ways of making that experience more upfront.
“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” has been a driving force of mine questioning the representation of art as well as how that affects the audience - art relationship and its aura. Conflicting with Benjamin’s notion, to me, an aura of an art piece can only be transformed, not destroyed and is, therefore, heavily dependent on the space it finds itself in. This theory has been examined by me in the experimental project AURA, where I conveyed the change in aura through my sculpture’s shift of the setting.
Additionally, I have been fairly occupied with the theme of relationships as an end result of art making. Influenced by Buren, I now see the space surrounding a piece of art as an intertwined part of the entire experience; not only does the environment affect an artwork due to its context, it’s very likely for art to incorporate the host space into itself. This integration further connects to Dezeuze’s focus on the
“painting’s physical support”, thus, an exploration of contrast between a painting and a sculpture. It’s moderately difficult to strictly separate the aspects of a sculptural piece of art and a painting - a canvas could equally be regarded as a three dimensional object. How much could the two dimensions be blurred?