A combination of elements from public spaces, street furniture and architecture recur in the artist’s works. The 2016 project Common Ground, presented at Gdańsk City Gallery, addressed the practice of urban demarcation and synthesised observations made in the streets of London, Warsaw and Gdańsk. The spatial installation was somewhat similar to Golińska’s diploma – it also resembled an obstacle course, only this time referring to urban planning and discipline.
The work Piercers (2018) was about the elements of urban architecture meant to restrict undesired behaviours – such items include barriers and spikes, or benches that are impossible to lie down on. Golińska transformed the forms of so-called hostile architecture into a kind of jewellery – functionless discs, hoops and spheres threaded on steel barriers resemble oversized silver earrings. Playing on associations, Golińska blends the divide between the functional and the aesthetic, focusing on both the practical and the emotional dimension of deterrent design.
The 2018 installation The Office, presented at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, also balanced on the verge of abstract minimalist sculpture and architecture. This time, Golińska looked into standardised office spaces. In a construction made up of light blue blinds and MDF, an unexpected figurative accent appears – human hair in a crack between the fibreboards, as if a heavy piece of furniture crushed an anonymous worker, presumably female. Long blonde hair is a formally subtle accent that sets the tone of the work, prompting reflection on the place women occupy within corporate hierarchies. The light blue enveloping the space is no innocent coincidence – The Office is a corporate variation on gender reveal parties, only this time it reveals who is at the top of the ladder.
