When asked in an interview about the most difficult challenge while working on Cyclists, she replied: ‘The most difficult thing was to catch the proportions, to create a sketch. I created the original design in A3 format. And when I rode the boom lift up the wall, I discovered that the wheel itself was three metres in diameter, and up close you essentially couldn’t see anything’.
She added that while working on this project she was accompanied by a feeling of melancholy, which is inescapable in Warsaw. But it should not be perceived as a negative emotion – quite the opposite.
The artist also works in other fields of art. She is the author of collages prepared for the anthology of Marcin Świetlicki’s poems titled Polska (wiązanka pieśni patriotycznych) (Poland [Bouquet of Patriotic Songs]), published in 2017 by Wolno Publishers in connection with the centenary celebrations of Poland’s regaining its independence. The publisher wanted the illustrations to be made by a person representing the younger generation. The first collages that Biała created for the anthology included works depicting a lonely cosmonaut planting a Polish flag into a pear with a bite taken out of it and a two-element collage juxtaposing a photo of white roses with ZOMO units attacking them. ‘It was an important experience for me, one that helped me come to terms with my Polish identity, which had long been a source of embarrassment. I needed to fall in love with it to be able to piece it back together’, she said in an interview for Vogue. The book was nominated for the Polish Association of Book Publishers Award in the category of The Most Beautiful Book of the Year 2018.
Alicja Biała, 'Adam and Eve' (fragment), from the series 'Open Bite', 2022/20223, copper plate, 200 × 90 cm, photo: Adam Słaboń, courtesy of the artist
At the same time, she also began to create Wycinanki Polskie (Polish Cutouts), travelling the way sacred images do, with the collection constantly growing.
In 2019, her installation Totemy (Totems) appeared on the pillars of the Sheraton Hotel in Poznań, at the entrance to Przystań Sztuki. It consists of six hand-painted sculptures referencing statistical data on the impact of humans on the natural environment. QR codes can be found on the sculptures, providing access to research results, which are visualised on the sculptures using patterns and colours. Each of the six Totems addresses a different issue: deforestation, production, food, plastic production, smog, the extinction of wild animals and the state of sea and ocean fisheries.
In an interview with Onet, the artist said: ‘In this project, art intertwines with science and statistics. We propose an alphabet that can be either accepted or rejected. The Totems also serve as decorative objects, drawing attention to seemingly unoccupied spaces’.
In 2022, Alicja Biała created the light sculptures Pająki (Spiders) out of ceramics and copper, which she made during her artist’s residency at the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Słupsk. Inspired by folk art, they were meant to be a remedy for depression.
During the Malta Festival in 2024, a sculpture of the Witch from Chwaliszewo by Biała was erected in Stare Koryto Warty Park, referring to the story of a woman burned at the stake in the 16th century. Its height corresponds to the average height of a modern Polish woman. Biała said about the project:
It became an opportunity for [me] to explore our collective history and its influence on contemporary perceptions of women. The Witch from Chwaliszewo symbolises both injustice and strength. In my work, I sought to capture this duality to remind us of the power that women have borne – and continue to bear – throughout the centuries, despite adversity.
The summer of 2024 was spent by Biała on an artist’s residency in Giverny, France, at the home of Claude Monet. She has previously participated in residencies, creating and presenting her works in, among others, Great Britain, Italy, the United States and Mexico.
The exhibition 'Zatruty staw' by Alicja Biała, 2024, Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK, photo: Adam Słaboń
At the Zatruty staw (Poisoned Pond) exhibition, which opened on 10 October 2024 at MOCAK in Kraków, visitors can admire the artist’s works, where life-size images of Adam and Eve are applied to metal sheets exposed to contaminated water and immersed in post-mining drainage ponds. The metal curtains are etched with acid, leaving intact only those fragments that were protected by varnish.
