Aneta Grzeszykowska, Negative Book № 62, 2012-2013, courtesy of Raster Gallery
Highlighting the artist's key strategies in manipulating methods of photography and film to create new ways of perceiving images, the latest exhibition of works by Grzeszykowska build upon her themes of exhibitionism, personal identity and self-erasure
The title of the exhibition refers to the Franz Schubert's work of 1817, which sets the narrative tone winding through the exhibition, founded on the relationship between body and identity, death and sexuality. Curator Maria Brewińska asks, "What is the relationship between the romantic theme of death and the work of a contemporary woman artist? Does she perceive herself as the Maiden in her transience?"
These themes are explored through Grzeszykowska's video works of recent years, along with a new series of photographs created especially for the show. Starting with her "black" series, featuring Black (2007), Headache (2008), and Bolymorphia (2010), which are rooted in visions of darkness and depth. Here the artist's body, painted white, strives to break out of the darkness, limb by limb. With gestures reminiscent of a rather erotic pantomime, the action represents the often futile exertions taken on by human beings in trying to break out of the abyss of existence and its ultimate end. In At Land (2011) Grzeszykowska appropriates frames from the original 1944 film made by and starring American avant-garde artist Maya Deren. Deren has spoken of her film as a struggle to maintain one's personal identity based on a narrative of Deren herself embarking on a journey and meeting a number of people, several of whom are other versions of herself. Grzeszykowska extends the film's dream-like narrative and themes, also adding her own soundtrack of sounds of the city and spoken dialogues from Deren’s book An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film. There is a clear link betweeen the performative aspects of both Deren's and Grzeszykowska's work, with their characteristic choreographies and experiments with time and space.
Grzeszykowska carries the same philosophy over to the still image, such as with her Negative Book series (2012-2013), which deconstructs photographs into their negatives. She begins with the traditional method of photographing a specific scene or situation set up specifically for the camera, yet in each frame, the body of the artist-subject is painted black. The next step in the process is to flip the negative, making that which is light - dark - and that which is dark - light, achieving morose shadows and iridescent bodies. Once again the luminescent figure emerges from the dark depths of the ocean, or, merely, an everyday duvet. The effect is an uncanny diary of what are essentially everyday scenes, captured in a new light, endowing them with a surreal, often chilling, spirit. At the same time, such manipulations undermine the "truth" of an image and how it is perceived by the viewer. As curator Maria Brewińska writes in the curatorial statement,
the negative character of the photographs and the positive procedure used on the body make it less real, depriving us of the possibility of a visual identification and stripping it of its emotional layers, leading to a situation where individuality and identity become relative. The result is that personal situations are reborn in an ontologically cold and severe game of black and white. This creates a distance, perhaps it even inspires something close to fear.
Born in 1974, Aneta Grzeszykowska is an artist of the Raster generation in Poland, associated with one of Poland's most creative institutions. In her art she uses photography, video and digital techniques to explore issues of intimacy, self-awareness and self-erasure.
Death and the Maiden opens at the Zachęta – National Gallery of Art on Friday, 12 April, at 7:00 p.m. and runs through the 2nd of June. For more information, see: www.zacheta.art.pl
Editor: AL
Source: Press info, own sources