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Małgorzata Niedzielko’s sculptures are usually analysed from the perspective of relations between nature and culture, male and female, emotion and reason. Opposing forces and contradictory patterns seem to clash in the figures made from charred wood and sheet metal, water and metal, or steel and seeds. Niedzielko clearly stands behind nature, the essence of her works is revealed by her use of materials that originate from “the earth.” The pieces’ sculptural form, being a representation of culture and a symptom of the taming of the elements, does not suffocate their organic character but rather emphasises it through simplicity.

The artist maintains a respectful and painstaking approach to her materials. The makeup of her sculptures invariably leads to thoughts of materiae primae, the primordial substance in which nature finds its source. Consequently, Niedzielko’s works exude a character redolent of archetypical objects. Often, the peculiarly amorphous and useless pieces take on an elementary form, suggesting precursors to figurative art. The materials per se are treated subjectively. Contrary to their lifelessness, Niedzielko evokes their biological essence, revealing their life and the metamorphoses taking place within them. Metal treated with water begins to rust, shapes of moist soil begin to crack as they dry, and the properties of wood change as it is subject to fire. Hence, the prolonged and uncontrolled process of transformation is as much a substance of the sculptures as the materials from which they are made.

In Niedzielko’s works, the process of transformation is governed by the essence of death rather than life. Metal undergoes corrosion, seeds in a steel substrate are deprived of the nutrients necessary for life, wood becomes charcoal or ash. While destruction is inseparable from the life cycle of a substance, Niedzielko demonstrates that this destruction is also the best evidence for its vitality, as opposed to its inanimateness. In her hermetic and somewhat alchemical pieces, the artist reaches back to primeval imagery and the simplest of elements. To face her work is to enter a liminal space which reveals the typically imperceptible laws at the foundations of human functioning, both with respect to nature and culture.

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