WOJCIECH BĄKOWSKI / MAGDALENA STARSKA – Head from heads

Starska & Bąkowski: GGead from heads

A joint exhibition of Magdalena Starska and Wojciech Bąkowski demonstrates points of convergence in their artistic outputs. Both are connected with the Poznań-based group “Penerstwo” as the group’s poetic faction. In Bąkowski’s and Starska’s oeuvre the aesthetics of “Penerstwo” is at the height of its sensitivity. Related most closely with everyday life, it is at the same time the most imaginative. The title of the exhibition, “Head of Heads”, suggests a complicated operation. It can be understood concurrently as a synthesis, sum total, and combination of multiple viewpoints into an “extended” picture of the world.

Starska’s and Bąkowski’s art is situated at the intersection of the private and social zones. Each time they say something about the world they give insight into their own affairs and, conversely, speaking about themselves, they touch upon issues that are of universal appeal. The shaman intentions of both of them give rise to hypnotic works offering ambiguous interpretations. This is an art that avoids the all-inclusive metaphor and that seeks rather a detail capable of disclosing unexpected realms.

The artists’ tempers differ. While Starska’s expressiveness, a product of her own mind, is invariably outward bound as an attempt at communicating with the viewer, Bąkowski deliberately stands back; one needs to follow him, enter some dark place, a backstreet. Interesting in the oeuvre of both artists is their fascination with mental and physical anomalies. This interest is born out of a conviction that the limitation of a “normal” perception of reality provides original perception perspectives.

Caves, niches, tunnels, cabins, water reservoirs, secluded and separate places are the recurrent motifs of Bąkowski’s and Starska’s works. The Head is a unique kind of place in their art. It is either enclosed within a claustrophobic chamber or a corridor that leads to an alternative reality. Within the head, the picture of the world is subject to a fascinating deformation, which au rebours reveals its principal, directly invisible, significations. The head, then, is a tool for the interpretation of the world, a propelling force of the poetic machinery of which Bąkowski and Starska seem to be seasoned operators.

The exhibition is composed of the following works: Wojciech Bąkowski’s video entitled “Beauty” and his animated film “Love” as well as Magdalena Starska’s drawings and an installation entitled “Focus of Attention”.

“Beauty” is a video clip for an old composition of Grupa KOT under the same title. Raw and monotonous, both visually and music-wise, “Beauty” shows the importance of poetry for Bąkowski’s oeuvre. Poetry and its rhythmical and melodious recitation are recurrent accompanying elements of his works. The black-and-white picture, a self-portrait of the artist whose still gaze rivets the viewer’s attention, and a re-arranged part of a bass guitar are the vehicles of the poetic message. The animated movie “Love” stresses the above aspects in another way. A powerful music background (without the spoken word, otherwise a hallmark of Bąkowski’s oeuvre) accompanies a uniquely construed picture, which is divided into two sections. The upper part is active and movable (animated), whereas the lower part is covered with texts, or short phrases that comment on the images presented above. The entire work brings to mind a copybook of an inquisitive student. This copybook, covered with doodles, seems to have been cut into pieces and reassembled. Theme-wise, like “Beauty”, it conveys uncontrollable associations and emotions, a rapture over and a fear of the world.

The “Focus of Attention” is a meticulous installation by Starska, composed of a felt tunnel lined with pockets that contain mini-installations. These abstract and funny “altars” made up of everyday objects, deliberately fragile and prone do destruction, are double-coded. Seemingly inconspicuous and far from serious, they mock the conventions of DIY but in reality are meant to make the viewer contemplate in an unaffected manner the elementary truths concerning his or her physical environment.

A suite of cut-outs “Head-Hat” is in fact an “instruction manual for the head”. Starska designs a close-fitting cap which, by stimulating our senses, is supposed to have a beneficial effect on our intelligence and assure an enhanced perception of the world. The aesthetic of an “arts lesson” (the works are displayed in a display cabinet as if in a school hall) allows Starska to avoid uncomfortable futurism and makes an imaginative and witty idea seem a natural, childlike and honest proposal.

Michał Lasota

translated by Marcin Turski