This is a series of online exhibitions in a model of a real space. The graphic files of artworks are inserted into the model to appear as if they are hanging from the walls. The digital recreation is (in most cases) looking as if it could really happen. The digital analogon however bears only resemblance to the real object. The latter is elsewhere. Actually multiple other spaces.
It is not about the illusion of actually making it into the gallery, speaking with the owner, asking casual questions like: „Is it made of wood?” The caption lists the materials but these are not related to what you see, but to another referent.
The resemblance is a matter of fidelity, but there is another thing going on in these shows. Can these objects be somehow conjured, activated? A vocal incantation places it in a narration. It is assigned with a position in time and a role within a larger performance. Mandelshtam posed a seemingly absurd question: „What is the difference between a book and a thing?”. Can a speech bubble appear and return voice to these objects?
Susan Howes’ poems are made of bits of writings of others. She uses concordances, which is a publication that collects all the words in the work of a given writer and offers an exact localisation in different books. A list that helps the researcher to find out the statistics of the usage of given words. Or, as one of the works lays out: „Concordances, I may remark, are / hunting down half-remembered / worthy service. They contribute n / e history of words, and so to the / iced such assistance from them” They are joined here with bits of books on plants, birds and minerals. The act of reading is organised by spacious piano composition by David Grubbs.
Tomasz Kowalski is the author of the painting depicting a man with large water bubbles. Most of them reflect the image of a coated figure in a landscape. One of them offers another reflection – a face similar to the visible protagonist. Mirroring surfaces are appearing in his works are inhabited by eyes, mirrors, but also letters and numbers.
Ivan Seal forms objects and places them in abstract space. They are composites of relics of memories. Their half-life is uncanny. How can they be summoned? The first step is by a title: „I believe the titles open up the paintings’ interpretative structure and meaning whilst balancing over nonsense and absurd.” These titles are generated not given. They collide with yet another activating layer, a series of psychometric test statements where „I” is replaced with „we”. Objects are turned into a multitude that coexist in a bleak background.
Finally Barbara Kinga Majewska stages an act of meaningful speechlessness. A majestic object is a speech banderole removed from the original. In the past it was used in painting to unravel the text of a singing person. This one is materialised (?!) and blank. The voice recording sings a wordless version of the everlasting classic of the earworm „Words don’t come easy”.
Daniel Muzyczuk
