The artistic work focuses on girlhood, exploring the symbolism of the color pink, which conceals the theme of objectification and corporeality. As well as searching for one's own subjectivity, one's own voice and self-determination. The project is intimate and personal in nature, with elements of nudity. In the implementation, I used the medium of photography, audio and text forms, combining them into a performative presentation.
The tablecloth is a decoration used to protect tables and cover their imperfections. Its white color symbolizes purity and innocence.
The tablecloth is a decoration used to protect tables and cover their imperfections. Its white color symbolizes purity and innocence.
My tablecloth is pink. Delicate, soft, romantic, tender. It is effeminate, weak and submissive.
Dressing up is not just a pleasure for a woman, but also an obligation that she must remember when doing any work.
In the theoretical work, I refer to feminist texts of culture and artists that touch on the topic of femininity and identity. I refer to the theories of colors (pink) and its use in culture. I talk about how intensely in the media, in art, in culture, women were objectified and infantilized, from the most trivial to the most complicated examples - I try to thoroughly dismantle patriarchal patterns. About the concept of the girl lolita, who is presented as doomed and dependent on a man. This is a work presented from a female perspective, but reflecting on the roles of women and men. I would like my work to make us reflect on our position in the environment, from the perspective of the dominant and the dominated and all the ingrained binaries.
a man, showing his body, tells about a higher idea, a woman about herself and her problems. her body is passive, it is the recipient who gives it meaning
Being a woman is a constant performance, poses, faces, clothes, so as not to look ugly, not to behave rudely, not to be judged, although there is always a way to do it. We are expected to be passive, submissive, obedient and look nice. Paradoxically, when I try to use this in my practice, especially performative, if I do not receive praise for looking nice, I am reprimanded for laziness, vanity and lack of message. Every form of fighting oppression is bad - passive, showing the operation of a scheme, as well as active - speaking directly about this complexity. I have accepted that every form I choose will be met with criticism and this is what I want to write about and do this work.
If I..
could speak
I would say
I would say
"no".
Although when I did, you never heard me say it.
Although when I did, you never heard me say it.
PHOTOS: SZYMON KSIĄDZ, OLA DUDZIC, ZUZA RAJTAR
EDITING: ME
In my action, I juxtapose this symbolic bed; sexuality and rest with infantility, as a kind of shield against exposing myself to effort and harm. I lie in pigtails, bows, cute underwear, on pink sheets, in my most submissive moment, on the bed. I play a girly game of “he loves me, he loves me not”, which consists of picking flower petals, thinking about the person we have a crush on, repeating this mantra, observing whether the last petal will hide “I love you”. Can I be loved without being perfect? As the flowers for the game, I chose pink roses - an obvious symbol of love and beauty, and at the same time suffering, thanks to their thorns. I bought 100 of them so that I could cover myself completely with them, cover them, include them in the scenographic element.
The subject is a little girl, always assessed for her every move. Appearing in this role before the examination board is the quintessence of the problem I write about in this work. Girls are expected to be SOMETHING from a child. Modesty, attractiveness, performativity, while boys are simply forgiven. The room is styled as a girl's room, with lots of pink and intimate decorations, but they get lost in the vast space. The scenography is unobviously divided into three parts - the bed on the left, the performance part in the middle and the instrumental part at the back, on the right. This decision came to me intuitively and subconsciously, and now I see in it the symbolism of the stages in a girl's life - passivity, performativity and gaining strength, a voice.
The subject is a little girl, always assessed for her every move. Appearing in this role before the examination board is the quintessence of the problem I write about in this work. Girls are expected to be SOMETHING from a child. Modesty, attractiveness, performativity, while boys are simply forgiven. The room is styled as a girl's room, with lots of pink and intimate decorations, but they get lost in the vast space. The scenography is unobviously divided into three parts - the bed on the left, the performance part in the middle and the instrumental part at the back, on the right. This decision came to me intuitively and subconsciously, and now I see in it the symbolism of the stages in a girl's life - passivity, performativity and gaining strength, a voice.
The action is accompanied by a soundtrack of a dozen or so minutes, in which I confide, talk about my experiences and talk about the genesis of discrimination against women, referring to the characters of Lilith, Eve, etc. In the text, I was inspired by or quoted, among others, Ways of Seeing by John Berger and Amateurs by Elfriede Jelinek. The latter, which I mentioned, is sometimes oppressive, violent, unpleasant for the reader. It tells about the role of a woman, girlish naivety, violence and the need for love. The text of the recorded text, as well as the one spoken live, is a tangle of quotes, my personal confessions, but also the confessions of third parties.
Live music is the culmination of the whole event, it is the most active, direct and aggressive manifestation. It reveals the suggested, symbolic elements, extracting brutal literalness from them. It is a consequence of building tension and emotions that at some point have to be shouted out. They are the final stage of the process of being an unassertive girl.
Live music is the culmination of the whole event, it is the most active, direct and aggressive manifestation. It reveals the suggested, symbolic elements, extracting brutal literalness from them. It is a consequence of building tension and emotions that at some point have to be shouted out. They are the final stage of the process of being an unassertive girl.
The first part of the exhibition element are photographs of objects and surroundings that I have taken. This is an outline, representation and completion of the concept of a “girl’s room” that I am trying to create. All the frames oscillate around pink and girlishness, from the innocent, pleasant and infantile side to suffering covered with bows. I print them in a small, postcard format (approx. A5), as a reflection of my personal space, filled with postcards.
The last part (I deliberately use an inverted hierarchy - the center and the current stage I am in is the middle), somewhat emancipatory, are photographs consciously taken in the most sensitive moments. Whether it is physical or emotional exposure. Myself, in beautiful and sophisticated poses, emphasizing the buttocks; or in the most difficult moments for me, with tearful eyes. I contrast extreme emotions and aesthetics, causing confusion in the viewer, who thanks to these procedures receives contradictory information. At the same time, I want to emphasize that without this suffering, we cannot achieve the ideal we strive for, or that the consequence of these aspirations are tears. Even documenting the moments when I cry, I feel the need to pose, to immortalize these tears, to beg for attention with my body and tears.
On the other hand, the middle and most important part of the scenery will be a calendar for 2026, inspired by popular erotic calendars. The calendar will be duplicated 12 times, so that each month can be viewed separately. Most likely, each of us has come across the concept of an erotic calendar, even when visiting a mechanic, at a time when porn magazines were available at every kiosk and at a gas station on the top shelves. The aforementioned calendar contained portraits of women, with varying degrees of negligee - prioritizing the overall figure, face, individual body elements (most often the butt and breasts) or a fully exposed vulva. The consumer has a wide choice of what they want to focus on and what they want to observe for a given month. I decided to make my own, ironic version, emphasizing the stereotypicality and tackiness of erotic photography. I have always been very irritated by the style of contemporary erotic photography, the enhanced contrasts, colors, pouting, parted lips, unnatural poses, the repeated motif of an unbuttoned fly, complete objectification. They gave up on any composition and aesthetics, in favor of completely reducing a woman to her genitals. The scheme, style of processing and setting are extremely repetitive, which makes the photographers indistinguishable. I think I don't have to look for specific examples and each of us thinks of the shots I mentioned. Such are the realities of contemporary culture, photography and the porn film industry. Since the introduction of color film, digital cameras, camcorders and easy access to erotic content - easily accessible pornographic sites, priorities in the distribution of content have changed.
After the performance, the viewer is invited to participate and delve into the space, which, in addition to being a space for action, is also an exhibition space. To sum up the fragments mentioned in the individual paragraphs, the stage is divided into three parts, symbolizing adolescence, and the whole imitates a girl's room. The first section, on the left side - the stage of passivity and girlhood, in addition to the photographs, is a bed, flower petals, a pink cabinet, a lamp, stuffed animals and a mirror. I also put books on the floor that I read as part of my diploma research. In the second, middle stage - striving for ideals, meeting standards - I minimized the number of objects to a cardboard with my likeness inspired by the famous Venus from Sandro Botticelli's painting. During the performance, I interact with her, with myself, as an object, as a completely passive and speechless figure. The last, emancipatory part is only the microphone, through which I will symbolically regain my voice and autonomy in the performance. The space is filled with objects from my room - bedding, a cabinet, accessories, stuffed animals, etc. Condoms with my image printed on them will also be scattered on the stage. They are a summary of the issue of objectification and reducing a woman to the role of a condom. Both they and the calendars will be put up for sale after the performance.
