Low Resolution, solo show curated by Agnieszka Dela-Kropiowska, Contemporary Art Gallery in Opole, Poland 2022.
Works:
You Are Only an Image to Me. III chapters: Virus, Prelude, Crocodile, video 11’11’’, in collaboration with a compositor Tomasz Litra, 2019-2022
You Are Only an Image to Me, UV prints on aluminium, 200 x 100 cm & 100 x 65 cm, 2022
Designate of the Word ‘Dog’ Is an Object of Which Truthfully Could Be Said That It is a Dog, UV print on a carpet metal cube 30 cm, 2015
Blue Monolith, installataion (photograph wallpaper, mdf, prie-dieu, felt), 2022
Mark as Unread, animation 3’30’’, 2019-2022
(Post)photographies & animations from series 01, displayed on screens, 16:9, 2015-2022.
Collaborations: main projection: music: Agata Knec; Cyan Pixel (video on a screen): 3D: Mateusz Bratkowski; music: Katarzyna Kalaniuk
Works:
You Are Only an Image to Me. III chapters: Virus, Prelude, Crocodile, video 11’11’’, in collaboration with a compositor Tomasz Litra, 2019-2022
You Are Only an Image to Me, UV prints on aluminium, 200 x 100 cm & 100 x 65 cm, 2022
Designate of the Word ‘Dog’ Is an Object of Which Truthfully Could Be Said That It is a Dog, UV print on a carpet metal cube 30 cm, 2015
Blue Monolith, installataion (photograph wallpaper, mdf, prie-dieu, felt), 2022
Mark as Unread, animation 3’30’’, 2019-2022
(Post)photographies & animations from series 01, displayed on screens, 16:9, 2015-2022.
Collaborations: main projection: music: Agata Knec; Cyan Pixel (video on a screen): 3D: Mateusz Bratkowski; music: Katarzyna Kalaniuk
Curatorial text:
The exhibition provides an overview of the artistic research performed by Magdalena Zoledz on the topic of post-photography – the “life of images” that is independent of the creator – and is an attempt to investigate the relation between the viewer and the work of art in the spirit of slow looking.
Let us consider a hypothesis that images are an autonomous organic species co-evolving with another species – humankind. Images, in this case, become parasites that live inside the organisms of homo sapiens, multiplying through the ages and waiting for the right moment to break free. This would mean that the human being (the artist) is only their carrier – an incubator that enables them to grow alongside the changes taking place within the universe. Every so often, the parasitic species present in the artist's body break loose with a dramatic effect and become known as “works of art” [Mitchell, 2013].
Functioning as a “living organism”, the image becomes a crucial constituent of posthumanist thought and post-photography, that creates hybrids and chimaeras, merges organisms, and separates the creator from its work, evoking the conviction of the independent functioning of works with their full background of desires, expectations and longings. Perhaps visual representations do not want to be interpreted, but only “experienced”. Possibly, they don’t want to be perfect in the broad sense of human aesthetic needs, and “low resolution” is the natural habitat in which they function. They may have no longings at all, but we are unable to establish this with full certainty... In line with the thinking of William J. Thomas Mitchell – What do pictures really want from us?
In the 21st century, digital visual content is accused of taking over the world. Slogans such as “we live in a world of images” have become commonplace, as we no longer distinguish between reality and its image. Let us recall Jean Baudrillard’s theory [ Baudrillard , 2005] – in “hyperreality”, the image no longer points to its original but multiplies in the digital world as an autonomous entity, complete with its own growth dynamics, stand-alone potential to communicate with the audience, and an unlimited ability to reproduce (multiply). We are unable to separate the two worlds (the sign from reality, the simulacrum from prototype), but perhaps there is no longer any need for that.
The exhibition provides an overview of the artistic research performed by Magdalena Zoledz on the topic of post-photography – the “life of images” that is independent of the creator – and is an attempt to investigate the relation between the viewer and the work of art in the spirit of slow looking.
Let us consider a hypothesis that images are an autonomous organic species co-evolving with another species – humankind. Images, in this case, become parasites that live inside the organisms of homo sapiens, multiplying through the ages and waiting for the right moment to break free. This would mean that the human being (the artist) is only their carrier – an incubator that enables them to grow alongside the changes taking place within the universe. Every so often, the parasitic species present in the artist's body break loose with a dramatic effect and become known as “works of art” [Mitchell, 2013].
Functioning as a “living organism”, the image becomes a crucial constituent of posthumanist thought and post-photography, that creates hybrids and chimaeras, merges organisms, and separates the creator from its work, evoking the conviction of the independent functioning of works with their full background of desires, expectations and longings. Perhaps visual representations do not want to be interpreted, but only “experienced”. Possibly, they don’t want to be perfect in the broad sense of human aesthetic needs, and “low resolution” is the natural habitat in which they function. They may have no longings at all, but we are unable to establish this with full certainty... In line with the thinking of William J. Thomas Mitchell – What do pictures really want from us?
In the 21st century, digital visual content is accused of taking over the world. Slogans such as “we live in a world of images” have become commonplace, as we no longer distinguish between reality and its image. Let us recall Jean Baudrillard’s theory [ Baudrillard , 2005] – in “hyperreality”, the image no longer points to its original but multiplies in the digital world as an autonomous entity, complete with its own growth dynamics, stand-alone potential to communicate with the audience, and an unlimited ability to reproduce (multiply). We are unable to separate the two worlds (the sign from reality, the simulacrum from prototype), but perhaps there is no longer any need for that.
- Agnieszka Dela-Kropiowska
Photo credits: Zachar Szerstobitow