The Training

The world of cartoons and animations created by Małgorzata Jabłońska is filled with seemingly identical geometrical little figures. In reality, however, every one of these tiny people is meticulously designed, together with a specific hairstyle, clothing, or facial expression. The computer stories filled with dozens of the little characters all have one common hero: a very precisely drawn girl, or rather a woman, with long hair and a fringe parted on the side. Once the viewer gets the hang of the dynamically changing situation, the funny stories and animations turn to be autobiographical and self-thematic to a great extent. The character present in most of the stories is actually a portrait of the artist. Two orders are mixed up in the world of the geometrical figures: the reality of the comic strip story and the external everyday life of the artist, subject to her careful observation.

The co-existence of the two diverse worlds present in the work is clearly visible. The animation and the drawings talk about school. The artist seems to draw a never ending inspiration from her struggles and experiences of being an art teacher. In the different scenes, Jabłońska has presented a gallery of student types, the general chaos and lack of direction in the classroom reality and dialogues typical of school rituals. Her virtual world has little to do with training, and the students – who look a bit like robots – have little in common with the typical hyperactive school kids. But the characters, as the episodes presented, evoke positive and friendly feelings. Jabłońska saturates her comic strips with warmth and humour, showing the school situations in a somewhat ironic way. The lessons framed in the pattern of a computer story are optimistic, and the teacher seems to be not so much irritated as amused. In the cartoon world, the school, which is normally mundane and commonly seen as boring, is seen here as a cheerful place. The selected phrases, cut out from the context of the classroom dialogues, only add to the humorous feeling. The Training is a recording of a situation in which the adults are discovering the world of children anew.

Izabela Kopania