Solo Exhibition
Galeria Kolekcjoner
Kraków, Poland
14 April to 5 May 2023
PL ENG
Nocturnal Animals
It was finally dark in the room. The murmurs in the audience died down. For a long moment, the darkness was their only experience. Necessary for the eyes to calm down and get used to the lack of light.
Just like in the world of the future ... right in front of the faces of the spectators sitting in soft armchairs, small images suddenly began to appear ... they looked a bit like a hologram ... luminous streaks of colorful shapes were drawn indistinctly, slowly. Various silhouettes appeared slowly and the brain processed them slowly, trying to match what the eye saw to the already known object... Sometimes it was successful, and sometimes the imagination failed. Especially in those moments when the dark places of the paintings merged with the surroundings. And just then the head was forced to work most intensively trying to guess their content. And the story was complex... and not at all ambiguous, because Beautiful Boy, looking so innocent or even being innocent, became a participant in such a complex story, which in the end he could not believe himself ... but he carried its mark on his body and inside himself. I wonder what a couple playing with fire on the edge of the village would say about this event? And it was so peaceful, although perhaps seemingly because in the depths of the deep night, suddenly a girl with a torch appeared, whose soft, warm light enveloped her naked body, but it was impossible to pick out the slightest outline of her face. Who was she and where did she come from? Is it related to a young fisherman wading in the black waters of the night, whose splashing sound lured a large toad nearby. She was no ordinary toad... her regal appearance commanded respect, and when he looked at her he heard what she said to him without even opening her toad mouth... but the eloquence of her expression made those words sink into his memory forever. Fortunately, after a while there was a guide who led him in a completely different direction. Curtain.
And again the light returns in the theater of our imagination so we can start telling stories anew. And when during the day we see all the elements of this puzzle, it will suddenly turn out that each of us has some dark secret, which we may find on the canvases of paintings. Or maybe they will be just scraps of these stories or even their faint shadows, because during life these events evolve in us or even faded away. But they left us with some emotion anchored in the cells of our body. From an early age, we like those moments when we put ourselves to the test, when we check how strong we feel. We tame demons by being afraid. Discomfort gives comfort when you tame it. We get to know each other through stimulation. Recognizing certain facts - we heal ourselves. Events are still working in us if we only open ourselves to this process.
Julia Medyńska's painting touches the deepest areas of feeling. How the detector detects and brings to the surface what we wanted to forget. But our own feeling is always on guard here, and you will allow yourself only as much as you want. Because your story may not be poignant at all. There is room for your imagination in understatements. In the absence of a color - insert your color. Into the lack of shape, implant your shape. Create, reorder, change importance, size and meaning. It's the puzzle of your puzzle. And you are its director and you choose the actors, scenery and build the plot yourself. Get into the role.
Curator: Ewa Kawałko
Nocturnal creatures generally have well-developed senses of hearing, smell, and specially adapted vision. Some, such as cats and ferrets, have eyes that can adapt to both low and bright daylight. Natural selection has made certain animals specialized in nocturnal survival on a sensory and behavioral level, so they cannot thrive in brightly lit environments.
Stories that happen at night:
In the paintings we see real animals (frogs, armadillos, rats) and people active at night. Nocturnal activity allows for other, secretive behavior, but the viewer who does not know these features can guess them or give them himself. Often animals use camouflage to integrate with their surroundings. It is a form of hiding in order to forage more effectively and act differently than during the day, all for the survival of the species. Who is the hunter and who is the prey? What is the secret that is being kept? What traps await potential victims who become less vigilant at this time?
There is no single answer to the narratives played out in the paintings. They are shrouded in mystery. Especially that some animals in the history of painting have a specific, allegorical meaning. In this way, the artist led the viewer to the clue they should follow in order to understand the message contained in their figures.
Whether we can guess the artist's intention this time, who likes to use metaphors, or whether we build this plot ourselves based on our own imaginations - it doesn't matter. These stories are intertwined, so we can find a common denominator.
