On March 30 the gal­lery will be closed









Aneta Grzeszykowska
Mama

2018
pigment ink on cotton paper and gelatin silver hand prints, 50 × 36 cm, ed. 5 + 1 AP each

Mama is an extension of a previous series Model, in which the artist worked with artisans to create a life-size, waist-up silicon replica of herself.

 

Here, she poses her daughter with the doll, showing the child and object in a variety of situations ranging from the idyllic (swimming in a lake) to the grotesque (the girl putting make-up on the doll) to the grim (the doll shrouded in a tarp). The use of this hyper-realistic simulacrum as a stand-in juts the comic up against the uncanny. The images are at times lush and forlorn, at others lurid, but they never lack a sense of self- conscious absurdity.

 

In Mama, Grzeszykowska reveals the body (and by extension, the self) to be both sculptural material and a performative act: a product of great flexibility, and uncertain durability.  

 

(text: Hunter Braithwaite)