(Phot. Bartosz Górka)
Installation view, group exhibition Views 2015 – Deutsche Bank Award, Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw, 2015
Exhibited works:
…and indescribable contour, 2015, textile (cotton, acrylic, polyester), aluminum, steel, modelling clay, dimensions variable
…and indescribable contour, 2015, pencil, coloured pencil on paper, 29,8 x 42,2 cm (in the Art Collection of Europejski Hotel, Warsaw)
The basis of my creative process is the drawing as a means of visualizing ideas. For me, it is not a sketch but rather an autonomous work made concurrently with the sculpture, often a reflection on them. Sometimes things that are impossible in physical space can be encapsulated in a drawing. In …and an indescribable outline I wanted to use blankets made on the basis of my drawings. All my works are highly intuitive, being also the result of collaborations, in this case, with a weaving mill in Białystok.
At some point, I no longer have a total control over the final effect of my project, how the project will be translated in the production process.
In fact, I’m not interested in its exact replication. Technological limitations, contact with persons specialising in a particular material or technology, offering their suggestions on the subject — all this results in a very interesting process. I accept that chance, or other people’s knowledge, can contribute to my work, sometimes in surprising or unplanned ways. What proved inspiring this time was the aspect of machine weaving, where my handmade drawing was first interpreted by a designer at the factory and then by a machine. When I started working on this project,
I was wondering how the textile could be made and I decided I was decided in machine waving rather than manual weaving. The fact that the textile (though made by a machine) won’t be put into serial production and won’t become functional (even if it has such potential) means that it is something ‘in between’. The fabric the blanket is to be made of is a semiproduct, ‘almost a blanket’.
At some point, I no longer have a total control over the final effect of my project, how the project will be translated in the production process.
In fact, I’m not interested in its exact replication. Technological limitations, contact with persons specialising in a particular material or technology, offering their suggestions on the subject — all this results in a very interesting process. I accept that chance, or other people’s knowledge, can contribute to my work, sometimes in surprising or unplanned ways. What proved inspiring this time was the aspect of machine weaving, where my handmade drawing was first interpreted by a designer at the factory and then by a machine. When I started working on this project,
I was wondering how the textile could be made and I decided I was decided in machine waving rather than manual weaving. The fact that the textile (though made by a machine) won’t be put into serial production and won’t become functional (even if it has such potential) means that it is something ‘in between’. The fabric the blanket is to be made of is a semiproduct, ‘almost a blanket’.
Alicja Bielawska