Crystal (from the After the Ball series)
Composition from ready-made objects
Crystals once proudly adorned sideboards in many homes. They were a symbol of wealth status and represented elegance and sublime tastes. The tower, which I arranged from crystal vessels just before the entrance to the palace in Morawa, shows the moment when precious things suddenly lose their value due to new fashions, sudden events or changes. I acquired the material for the work in just such a situation: someone was moving out of the apartment building where I live, and in the yard, they abandoned a pile of crystals they no longer needed. In Morawa, at the time of the Symposium, through the recalled story from the war times, another even darker context of the adjective crystal was revealed.
Glow
Epidiascope, a ready-made object
The work relates to the work Crystal. Complementing it, it shows the unusual qualities of glass, which, thanks to shining light through it, created an extraordinary fairy-tale illumination on the palace wall. I saw in this painting echoes of stories that are told to children before bedtime. The tale of the Snow Queen’s menacing palace and a heart wounded by a shard of glass may have resounded here too in the old days.