MARTA SZYMCZAKOWSKA

In 2005, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, Poland. She works as an assistant tutor in the Department of Drawing at her alma mater, where she is currently pursuing her PhD. In her artistic practice, she focuses on painting and drawing. She also works as a translator and editor of art catalogues. Her hobby is writing.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My artistic work is an attempt to bring back the balance between the word and the image through hybrid artworks which combine both of them and which I, therefore, called word-images. They represent a continuation of a long tradition of artistic activity in this field, of which the most important examples are various kinds of visual poetry, concrete poetry, total literature and calligraphy. The degree to which a picture is saturated with words varies, producing a diverse series in terms of form and subject. The word is cast in many different roles: it informs, engages the audience in a linguistic puzzle, quotes poetry and even moralises. Its function is to spell out the theme and message of an abstract composition. In turn, the form of the picture and the employed means are determined by the idea of the work, expressed and specified by the word painted/inscribed in it.