It filled the Wells, it pleased the Pools

part of "Between Swimming and Dryland", Kunstverein Reutlingen 2019

.
Liquid, watercolour on paper, 80 x 60 cm
.
It filled the Wells, it pleased the Pools, in collaboration with Olga Milczyńska. Illustrated ceramics, various sizes. Table dimensions 5 x 2 x 1.25 meters, painted in fresco technique.
Images (c) Kunstverein Reutlingen, Photo: Karolina Sobel

The bulbous forms of the vessels are a direct reference to Milczyńska's sculptural and design vocabulary. She talks about the energized force contained by the ceramics and how their agitated movements push and pull and the clay. In this collaboration Milczyńska's works comes into conversation with my figurative work and my thoughts on defining the boundary of the corporeal, while referencing important works in which the objects of the domestic sphere challenge the understanding of femininity, obvious examples being found in the works of Judy Chicago, Méret Oppenheim and Martha Rosler. Here, the walls of the clay have finally been broken, revealing my illustrations of anatomical sections of muscles, glands and blood canals. Everything is oversized, from the table itself, the table settings and the two heads that punctuate each end. Visitors are made to feel shrunken, and the table turns into a stage. We might observe it like a frozen scene from an alien-like dinner, where perhaps long ago the division between the two guests and their dinner objects had dissolved. The heads lie stone cold, while the table and earthenware are illustrated as still pulsing and breathing.

web-03.05.20-1923
01-dsc_0117
11-20190722_kunstvereinreutlingen_aszaflarski-112
03-20190722_kunstvereinreutlingen_aszaflarski-080
04-20190722_kunstvereinreutlingen_aszaflarski-107
05-dsc_0104
06-dsc_0123
07-dsc_0122
08-20190722_kunstvereinreutlingen_aszaflarski-008
09-dsc_0119
20190722_kunstvereinreutlingen_aszaflarski-102
dsc_0126