The Embryo

Ada Karczmarczyk’s small, zirconia-covered Embryo refers to Damien Hirst’s sculpture For the Love of God (2007). Hirst’s work – a diamond-studded cast of a human skull in platinum – has been widely commented on in terms of the material value of the artwork, kitsch and the ethics of the artist’s actions. Karczmarczyk made a reference to the decoration of the skull with gemstones, serving, as she pointed out, to emphasise the object’s preciousness. In her perception, the gesture was intended to direct the recipient towards reflections on the essential. An embryo prompts one to attach particular importance to human life; Karczmarczyk points this out as a possible interpretation of her work. However, she states that she also understands the embryo in terms of the Aristotelian tradition, as potency: the fulfilment of possibilities, the beginning of something new, in the context of both life and art.

The Embryo was created at a turning point in the artist’s spiritual formation. Karczmarczyk speaks of rediscovering the Catholic faith and moving “from the direction of darkness towards light”. The embryo is thus “the opposite of the skull”, a symbol of art’s new mission: to show what is good, to lead towards the light. Karczmarczyk’s idea is to develop a new formula for art that deals with the subject of religion. Her focus is not on paintings intended for private devotion, but works that would constitute a compromise between the languages of the most recent art, the Church and society, so that the Catholic religion would once again begin to be attractive to the young people. As a means of expression, Karczmarczyk has chosen the language of pop culture, which she believes can help to revitalise the message of the Gospel, presenting Catholicism without undue focus on suffering or a cult of death.

Karczmarczyk has been accussed of tarnishing Catholic values by using kitsch; the same arguments made it possible to interpret her works as criticism of religion. In a text on her oeuvre, Andrzej Draguła wrote that “the language of faith is a resultant of language and faith. How we speak about God will depend on the resources of our language and the kind of religious experience we have”. In defending the pop costume of her work, Karczmarczyk said that she wanted to leave something of her old identity, and the pop-cultural aesthetic once dear to her, in her current work. She chose this form of narrative consciously, in order to speak about the value of religion in her words and thus “destroy Satan with the grace of the Lord”.