Can You Hear Me?

Two Miniatures from the Time of Pandemic In the time of the current pandemic, restriction of our usual social contacts and face-to-face communication, most of us are experiencing loneliness. It can touch us with various levels of intensity… From my own experience: with impoverished communication, quite often deprived of the emotions expressed by body language, touch, facial expressions, our message is often partial or distorted. This causes our feeling of loneliness to become even more hollow. Can You Hear Me? is a message woven using Morse code. The question/sentence is woven in copper coloured metallic thread (copper is a conductor). The message “Can you hear me, hear me, hear me, me” from left to right is fading until it becomes hardly visible, becomes a whisper and a quiet appeal rather than a question… Technique: weaving. Materials: linen, paper and metallic threads. Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.5 cm

Signal

Two Miniatures from the Time of Pandemic. In time of the current pandemic, restriction of our usual social contacts and face-to-face communication, most of us are experiencing loneliness. It can touch us with various levels of intensity… From my own experience: with impoverished communication, quite often deprived of the emotions expressed by body language, touch, facial expressions, our message is often partial or distorted. This causes our feeling of loneliness to become even more hollow. Signal symbolises a call which a human generates to reach other(s). For me such a signal is of radial character, and can be received: heard or felt, by these to which it is directed and those who are more accidental recipients. This piece is an attempt to express an abstract phenomenon as a physical representation. Techniques: traditional weaving and artist’s experimental techniques. Materials: linen twine, linen/paper/metallic threads. Dimensions: 10 x 10 cm

Ballad (Sun, …and Rain, …and Wind)

“Ballad” – a woven triptych: Sun, …and Rain, …and Wind (Polish title: “Ballada kowarska” Słońce, …I Deszcz, …I Wiatr). Created in June/July 2020 Dimension: each piece measures 51x90cm Materials: wool on linen warp, small quantities of linen yarn and linen trim. Techniques: traditional weaving and artist’s own techniques.

Rhythms of the Road

Created in May 2018. Materials: 100% linen – linen warp, linen twine and yarns as weft. Dimensions: 54.5cm x 54.5cm  The inspiration for the piece was a photograph of layers of asphalt taken by @chatcameraman. I found interesting rhythmical regular and irregular patterns in the texture of layers, differences in colour saturation… It was an interesting challenge to express them in weaving. While working on the project I invented my own techniques and weave patterns. Rhythms of the Road is not only about the structure, but also of what is happening 'on the road': all sorts of movements, beats, sounds, waves… cars, bicycles, people walking and running, dogs, cats, birds, insects, hooves of horses, sometimes even sheep moved from one field to another by a farmer with a dog… All of it is happening on the road by my house, all of it combines into a colourful rhythmical spectrum. For the Rhythms of the Road I was awarded a Prize at the 10th International Artistic Linen Cloth Biennial "Z krosna do Krosna", Krosno, Poland.

Runaway

Created in March 2017. Medium: various paper fibres and yarns, metallic threads. Techniques: weaving. Height: 120cm, Width: 170cm The piece depicts the impulse which drives a person suffering from anxiety or/and depression: the impulse to flee, to run-away from a continuous painful physical and mental discomfort. The ‘run-away’ comes from a need to get out of an unbearable environment: you may hope that the shifting of place will bring a saving change. It may, but... not for long. As tempting and bright as it seems, the ‘leaving it all’ is really running into a void. You run away carrying all the issues in yourself. They are still there. There is no running away from depression, as you cannot run away from yourself. The work is done in some thirty different fibres. Most of them come from up-cycled paper packaging and unravelled second-hand cotton jumpers. Other materials include: lokta paper, paper yarn, crêpe paper, paper raffia, natural raffia, jute, bamboo yarn, linen yarn, bullion metallic thread

Runaway: Detail

Morning Anxiety

Created In May 2017 Medium: various up-cycled papers, paper yarns, lokta paper, some cotton and linen yarn. Techniques: weaving and artist's own techniques. Height: 110cm, Width: 110cm, Depth: 2.5cm The work is a minimalist woven piece depicting a state of mind of one living with an anxiety disorder In my own experience, the morning is usually the most difficult moment for a person dealing with anxiety. You are inclined to stay idle in bed and be a prisoner of anxiety for the entire day: to succumb seems to be the easiest way. But you can choose to deal with it by pushing yourself to complete seemingly small tasks, which, in this situation, require serious effort. It is similar to a physical sensation of pulling and breaking bonds which keep you tied in place, without an ability to productively deal with such moments of your life. Yes, there is something more to life, somewhere there is fulfillment and creativity, but it is out of your reach until the destructive ties are dealt with, snapped progressively, ONE BY ONE, until you can breathe, can live, can fly... The piece is done in up-cycled paper packing materials, including Lidl and Tesco bread bags, used paper sheets for wrapping take-away chips (stained with grease), paper used for packing and stuffing goods in retail, and used paper napkins from IKEA. This is the main medium. Other fibres are used in sparse quantities: lokta paper, paper yarn, linen and cotton yarns.

Morning Anxiety: Detail

Echoes – a triptych

Created in February 2017 Medium: paper yarn of various thickness containing recycled fibres, small amount of metallic thread Techniques: traditional weaving combined with the artist's own techniques Height: 48cm, Width: (41cm, 30cm, 21cm), Depth: 0.7cm Echoes is a symbolic, minimalist, woven triptych. The three pieces of the triptych represent three stages of destructive change: progressive limitation of clear uncontaminated water and unpolluted air, but also escalating loss of a single organism and entire species. But there is still hope. We can look at the pieces of the triptych from left to right (progressive degradation), but we can also consciously see it from the other direction: right to left (gradual growth and rebuilding). The same in life: by conscious decisions, actions and unceasingly pressuring the local, national and global governments, by ecologically aware education on a small and large scale, starting from our own household, we can make a significant change and progressively reverse from degradation to ecological growth. It is not only about the fauna and flora of the Earth. It is extremely significant to the life of every human being in every part of the world. The work selected for the International Biennial PAPER FIBER ART 2017/18, Taiwan, organised by the Association Chaîne de Papier, France (theme: ECO-SUBLIME). The exhibition will be shown in the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute in Nantou Taiwan RC between the 6th of October 2017 and 9th of March 2018.

Echoes - Detail