"I cut, I stick together "

Weronika Teplicka

My artistic practice spans two periods: before the psychotherapy process began (painting objects) and after it ended (photographic projects).

Feeling anxious about the presentation of my works, I collected them, folded them and consequently hid them. I initiated my method - of destroying and reassembling images - in order to cope with the surplus of works created during my studies, many rehearsals and exercises, and my reluctance to dispose of them, throw them away or give them away. I was looking for a way to condense them, reduce their form and make them easier to store. I began to cut unsuccessful and unacceptable paintings on canvases into strips, and to form non-representational arrangements and structures out of glue-fused modules. For me, painting became the material from which successive images were created, and the awareness of the inevitable destruction of these forms allowed me to create without fear of judgement. The gesture of changing, transforming and transforming unaccepted painting matter into accepted matter became increasingly important to me.

Successively, I began to associate the way I create with the process of psychotherapy. All my thoughts, memories and ways of perceiving reality were disassembled and merged into a new order, freed from drugs and irrational, destructive thoughts. Being at the end of this process, I began to feel an uncontrollable need to talk about myself and to put myself at the centre of my artistic interests. I explored the theme of myself as an artist. I also wanted to make a smooth transition from abstract to figurative art, using my previous experiences.

To document my life, I chose to use the camera on my mobile phone, a tool that is widely available and requires no specialist photographic knowledge. I took advantage of the fact that it has lenses on two sides. I photographed art-making moments and everyday activities, giving them equal importance. With a constant frequency, I took two images: photographing myself and, switching the lens settings, everything in front of me. There were periods of greater and lesser intensity, monotony and visible change. From the resulting images, I built photographic collages, assembled on a modular basis (each individual image was 1 x 1 cm). I started the project in 2020, during a residency at the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, and continue to work on it in parallel with my work on painting objects.

Sentences, quotations, titles - journal clippings, 1996 - 2024, the order is not chronological:

1. "I paint what I cannot photograph, I photograph what I cannot paint".
Man Ray
2. '... if something is boring done once, do it twice, if it is still boring, do it four times, if...'. John Cage
3. looking for the moment of return, from abstraction to figuration.
4. "St Ignatius' commandment: first of all, don't be bored!"
5. find a way to condense my works, make them smaller, make them easier to store.
6. never throw away any of my paintings.
7. psychotherapy: works before, works after.
8. Clippings of images, clippings of reality.
9. I collect rejected, failed paintings of artistic people.
10. "To possess the world in the form of images is to re-experience reality" Susan Sontag
11. "Nothing is boring if you look at it long enough" Gustave Flaubert
12. "Painting is the answer to all questions".
13. "Quantity can make quality."
14. "If you are ashamed, stop being an artist".
15. "If they don't invite you, go alone".
16 "The artist sits on the train.
17 "I don't care if I write poorly, writing can only be learned by writing."
18 "You're going around in circles..."
19 "Covered - uncovered".
20. watch Georges Perec's "The Man Who Sleeps" and read!
21. film by Jozef Robakowski "Closer - further".

Opening: 08.05. 2024 at 6 p.m.

Exhibition: 08 - 31.05.2024

Gallery Szewska 16; Poznan

Gallery open from Monday to Friday from 09 a.m to 7 p.m

On behalf of the artist, we invite you!