ISOLATION/
ALIENATION
Visual Arts 2020 exhibition
No matter whether we take a walk around the city or an intellectual journey inside the secrets of social sciences, we begin to notice a common pattern. There is always some distance, some isolation, some alienation. These are interesting words that one can play with; words that have many meanings and sink into our perception of the society. In this exhibition, I would like to explore their vast significance. My intention is to provoke my audience with the question whether we can regard them as negative or beneficial, building or destructive.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
John Donne
CONCRETE CONCEALMENT
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Original size: 20 x 20 cm each part of the triptych
Watching the Barbicania documentary by Ila Beka has changed the way I look at he Barbican Estate in London, making me explore the isolation aspect of the space. It has made me realise that there are two main sources of the feeling of isolation - being a literal fortress from the outside and prices making the areas easily accessible to some seem out of reach to others.
ISLANDS (JOIN HANDS?)
Medium used: digital photography
Original size: 30 x 40 cm each part
In the city centre of Gdańsk, Poland, there are over five islands so well incorporated into urban structure that no one seems to notice them. All of the pictures represent people and animals’ relationships with these ‘islands’, by definition separate pieces of land, which do not seep isolated at all. The title was inspired by lyric from a song by King Crimson, Islands.
THE LAW OF JANTE
Medium used: vector graphics
Original size: 29.7 x 42.0 cm
The Law of Jante explores toxic, oppressive communities which are eager to turn away from and isolate their members. The poster claims that at some point, every city and town obeys the Danish concept of Law of Jante, a code of conduct known in Nordic countries that characterises not conforming, doing things out of the ordinary, or being overtly personally ambitious as unworthy and inappropriate.
A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN
Medium used: pencil on paper
Original size: 50 x 70.7 cm
A Room of One’s Own emphasises the need of personal space, for isolation, especially if someone is to produce something valuable. The title alludes to the famous quote by Virgina Woolf - „A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” The artwork also analyses the concept of someone’s private room, exposing how much of its inhibitor’s human essence is inside that room.
PIECES
Medium used: digital photography
Original size: 30 x 40 cm each part
Pieces is in a way an extension of the exploration provided by the previous work. In here alienation due to ‘social distancing’ during a pandemic provides the tools to explore the space people inhabit, notice even the tiniest things in their environment. It also provokes finding different functions at different times of the day for different places in one room, where lines are blurred between work and leisure.
WASH YOUR HANDS
Medium used: vector graphics
Original size: 29.7 x 42.0 cm
Wash your hands gives the spirit of the society under pandemic, with probably the most repeated slogan. Despite the fact that due to safety reasons it is advised to practice ‘social distancing', people come together (metaforically!) to take care of each other. Citizens become aware that they live in a society and should be active members of it - they cannot wash their hands of their abandoned responsibilities.
THE WALL
Medium used: paint on styrofoam
Original size: 90 x 30 cm
The Wall is an allusion to the famous Pink Floyd’s rock opera. The album explores Pink, a rockstar whose eventual self- imposed isolation from society is symbolised by a wall. Eventually, tormented with guilt, he places himself on trial, his inner judge ordering him to "tear down the wall”. The artwork provides the positive opinion that, it is always possible to challenge ourselves to overcome our inner borders.
WHO ARE YOU
In Das Kapital, Marx argues that we have ceased to perceive our purchases as relations between people. This means that the ‘author’ is in a way estranged, isolated from their product. Not only are they not acknowledged for it, but may not be able to afford it. Who Are You? encourages the reflection ethicality of such situation.
SO...HOW DOES ISOLATION AFFECT YOU?
