Selfies

Face Book is an ephemeral, sketch-like form of a day-by-day diary with a register of everyday emotions. It contains 62 separate compositions, executed on paper, bound into a notebook/diary. In a way its form seems to be quite universal because it explores my interest in contemporary self-presentation techniques and tools that enable us to create and constant control our self-image, this diary is a collection of 'hand-made selfies'. Several images incorporate text in various languages: English, French, German or Polish. Face Book is very personal too, registering some uncomfortable facts about ageing for instance, facts that are embed into our lives by cultural pressures on women and men to stay perfect in terms of their looks, leaving us conscious about the way we present ourselves. Book's introverted content was inspired by an echo of European romanticism, especially poetry focused on inner feeling that was translated into more universal visual language. The diary form is not new of course, and I reminiscent one particular sketch diary that made a huge impression on my artistic approach, especially on the belief that we just have to create in whatever conditions and whether we can change our environment or not. This was a little diary I restored in the past, it was an anonymous object from Belsen-Belsen Camp museum, striking, crude images of camp everyday life in bold colours, using the form of sort of a comic, depicting humans with animals’ heads. Cruelty of this camp reality closed in a tiny pamphlet form, amazing quality of the drawings raised a question about inevitability of creative process… I've used mixed-media to implement techniques that are slightly incidental, are not leading to perfectly designed image. I feel that materials I've used are also feminine, intuitive: messy charcoal, oil stick, pencil, acrylics, salt printed image, lino, collage with printed material, textile, plastic etc. This collection of various material is coming from my belief that historically women were gathering the relics of the past, they were informal collectors of memories and I wanted to show that connection. Face Book was initially meant to be a very private record, and was not to be displayed, but during Artists’ Open Studios days in Hackney in 2017 it became a subject of a lot of interest from the visiting public and it was suggested that it should be published in form of an artistic book.