Dominika Olszowy’s exhibition begins in a treetop. During a visit to Turkey, the artist was intrigued by a strange detail. Her eyes obses­sively retur­ned to the image of a cypress tree with a bent top, a common feature on local tomb­stones. Through the twisted paths of association, she discovered that Vin­cent van Gogh also trim­med the tops of the cypres­ses in the pain­tings from the waning years of his life. Whether it is a deviation or a slight adjust­ment to the com­position, this defor­mation of the tree car­ries a sym­bolic meaning, as a sign of pas­sage to the other side. Olszowy alludes to this motif in a series of glass mosaics that attempt to enchant grief, to pass through it just as a heal­thy tree can survive the pruning of its branches. 

The exhibition is titled Globus Hystericus. This sump­tuous Latin phrase refers to a common psychosomatic disorder—simply a lump in the throat. Whether a frog in the throat or a bent treetop, every crisis has a tan­gible shape and every shape has its artist. A healer.