Friday,
26 April
Space
In my realizations I often depart from the expressive forms by building a vibrating and complex structure, which enters into perceptible interaction with space. It penetrates it and I co-create the works. The encounter with space creates a framework for the realizations and outlines the areas into which I integrate their constituent elements. Utilizing the encountered space I create places – fragments of space which are subordinated to it. I often meet therein places which have already been called into being by its previous users: places of nature and mood set by the manner in which they are used and the functions and roles which they played or continue to play. I experienced these meetings with space and place when I was installing my new works. I impose on the already existing place elements of my works, parasitizing some of their original functions. The history of the place and its purpose completed the reading of the newly appointed places.
The multitude of elements
Complexity, modularity, the multitude of elements allow me each time to take the challenge of space. To create space. Most of my works are composed of multiple elements. This complexity has been created largely by accident. With time I saw its advantages and with full awareness began to build works consisting of modules. Even when the final result had the nature of the monolith (as in the work titled “Peace,” tightly covering the taken place). For me, the multitude of elements is not only a method. Over time, the complexity ceased to be only a form. It turned to side of the medium by becoming i.e. pixelization, reproduction, multitude, etc. It started slowly to encroach on the areas of meanings, which were created at the level of the everyday events, the ordinary, the monotonous, the repeatable, etc.
Self-sufficiency
The above-mentioned multitude of elements involves the eponymous self-sufficiency, which, at a time when we are surrounded by a crowd of assistants, associates and co-workers ready to help, I understand to be the control over the work from beginning to end. Production of elements of my works is not technologically complicated. I can comprehend all the stages on my own. From the selection and collection of material, through creating modules to the stage of assembling the work. I myself go from the monotony to manufacturing; from undergoing the rigors of repetitive work to the creation of new spaces from generated elements. Building truly complex compositions from many smaller elements does not pose any problems. As a result, I can create my works myself each time. I can react instantly to the existing spaces. It may be an irrelevant and naively presented feature of my activity, but for me it is very important. Self-sufficiency, that is independence.
Daily life
“I comment reality through my everyday life,” this declaration I made several years ago seems still valid. I work at home. I do not usurp the right to call or designate that place as a studio. This is my HOME. At any time I can stop working and at any moment it can resume it. With my work I fit into the rhythm of family and responsibilities. I try to make keep the aforementioned components of my daily life in harmony. To keep them harmoniously complementary.
Home, which had to become a place of work is now is a workplace of choice. It offers me a panoramic view of the reality surrounding me. I can simply walk up to the window (to see the oppressive architecture outside), switch on the computer, radio, or the TV, or read a newspaper (to experience a surfeit of information), talk with a neighbor, take out mail from the mailbox (and incidentally find an advertising flyer). Reality pours into the house through the doors and windows. Challenges, and the same topics, come uninvited. You only need to see them.
Observation
I feel good in the role of the observer. Daily observations are an inspiration to me. I look at things which are simple and ordinary, such as the rituals of everyday life seen through the window of my house or the dynamic reality seen from the windows of the bus. My personal characteristics determine the form of my action. I observe, collect and process the collected observations, and what is the result? – “City”, “habitat”, “carpet”, “rolls” etc. As I wrote above – I feel good in the role of the observer, but I also feel perfectly well in the role of the commentator.
Collecting
The collection of observations and their subsequent processing is the next phase of collecting. In fact, I have always gathered, collected something. So complex compositions are something natural for me. They have functioned in my life forever: series and collections. They have reflected the fascination and important things at the given moment. Some of these collections until today lie dormant in boxes. A part of them become a component of my work. I still collect. I subordinate this collecting activity to the collection of observations that may be combined to become the new elements of my new projects.
Method of work
The materials I use to build my works are usually found in the immediate vicinity. This unsophisticated arsenal of means is straight from the stationery store, paper drop, home collections and stockpiles. Not too complicated to process. It does not require special tools. A knife, scissors, glue for paper, that’s enough. The works are created slowly. These are rituals preceded by filing and selecting materials. Later comes the time for measuring, plotting, and finally to the cutting and gluing. Sometimes it is the end, and sometimes only the beginning of work on the project. Because only then does the rolling or knitting of the fabric start.
Katarzyna Józefowicz
Born in 1959 in Lublin. She studied at the Faculty of Sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk in 1981-1986. She defended her diploma in the atelier of prof. Edward Sitka. She is the author of drawings, installations, sculptures and objects. She presented her works at individual exhibitions among others in 1996, 1998 and 2003 in Koło Gallery in Gdansk, in 2000 and 2001 at the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw, in 2000 in Provincial Gallery in Slubice, in 2003 in the Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok, in 2007 in the Wozownia Gallery in Torun, in 2007 in the Biała Gallery in Lublin, in 2002 and 2005 in the Foksal Foundation Gallery in Warsaw, in 2009 GGM in Gdansk, in 2010 in Li Space in Beijing, in 2013 at the MMC in Vilnius, in 2015 in the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, among others in 2001 in Berlin Biennale, in 2002 in the Biennale of Sydney, in 2003 in “Architectures of Gender: Contemporary Women’s Art in Poland”, Sculpture Center, New York, in 2006 in “In Poland, that is, where?”, CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw , in 2011 in “The Power of Fantasy”, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles, in 2013 in “Woven Splendor”, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw.