Subject Aggregates
Berlin/ Vienna 2012–14
I am interested in the “leeway” that might open up beyond the classical stability of contrasts, also including the opposition between subject and object. Opportunities for change take many forms, and are only partially consummated, as was also already suggested in my early works. These steps give rise to aggregates of incomplete formalizations in the throes of an unfolding process. The groups of figures and people in some cases build on and develop out of friendly thinking babes, drawing on the same coats and limbs from the two cultural compendia, Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie and the Iconologia after Cesare Ripa. As heads they carry so-called “remains”—undefined, unidentifiable forms from the Encyclopédie’s production cast-offs. Further elements include representations of people from the advertising panels in ulica Swietoduska taken from Lublin photographer Stephan Kiełsznia’s archive. These figures are “historical”—they are individuals who have experienced a biographical process, i.e. are shaped by a specific cultural consciousness.
The Liegende (Reclining Woman), developed earlier to fulfill her “tasks” in the symbol series SYMBOL gotowe, where she played a role in the paradoxical trading processes, is also incorporated into this cycle of works.