Simple Structures
For a simple structure to be made, materials, tools, time and experience are needed. The artist has built an exhibition around that last component – experience, which is understood not only as a one-off, short-term event, but as an ongoing accumulation of knowledge over time.
Experience–based on repeated mistakes, insightful observation and long-term performance of similar tasks. An invisible and often inexpressible value of which embodied knowledge may be a synonym. It is an immaterial practise, difficult to pass on, which is gradually losing its value these days.
Despite appearances, simple structures such as a shovel or an axe were not invented in an easy and obvious way. The experience of many generations of craftsmen influenced their shape and the material they are made of.
The title piece Rękojmia [Guarantee] is a collection of handles from shovels, axes, rakes and spades. The handles vary in length, width and shape. They are painted in colours inspired by Pieter Breugel the Elder's painting The Blind Leading the Blind. It depicts a group of blind men walking only by feel with sticks. The artist saw a reprint of the painting in a daily newspaper. It illustrated an article about the current economic situation in Europe, which is heading in an unknown direction, following rules that are long out of date.
The exhibition was shown in Gallery Łęctwo in Poznań, 2015