untitled (Ghetto Is A Trap, loop)

The ascetic objects by Piotr Łakomy cause us to see him as an artist who carefully listens to and studies the life of things. The essence of his projects consists in the material, with all its properties, as well as in the object which has long ceased to be inanimate in the understanding of contemporary anthropology. The minimalism, which determined his esthetic decisions and the choices of material, may be identified with the reaction to the overproduction of sounds and images. Hence, minimalism is seen here as a method of focusing on the object itself, releasing it from the meanings assigned to it a priori.

Łakomy creates a new quality by making use of waste and low-grade materials. He builds objects which are devoid of recognizable external contexts. He uses concrete, plastic, and metal scrap, seeking value in everything that we push out onto the outskirts of our world, and what is, at the same time, deeply rooted in that world. The block of slightly melted Styrofoam, the modest construction made from drying racks for clothes, and the irregular form of the pressed scrap metal painted with car varnish, all belong to a different order which is parallel to reality, but which is governed by its own rules. There is no place here for functionality and usefulness, and the hierarchy of things as adopted by humans is not applicable.

The enigmatic explorations of Łakomy are steered towards the most fundamental substance and the simplest object, the archetypical expression and experience. The associations are strengthened by the use of grey hues, the shine of the metallic varnish, and the authentic nature of the material used. The experience of objects from outside the order of humans enforces humbleness and the abatement of senses, offering a new quality of contact with the world of matter. This contact is intuitive and surprising in terms of its relations which cannot be rationally explained and which reveal themselves serendipitously and in details, as was the case with the unintended interrelation of the weight of the metal block and the weight of the artist: when working on the object, Łakomy weighed exactly as much as the cube made of pressed scrap metal.

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