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Aneta Grzeszykowska & Jan Smaga,
Nadkole, Sloneczna
(from the
series
Plan),
2003, 125x293 cm, lambda print, edition of 7,
courtesy of the artists and Raster Gallery
"Plan" consists of 10 photographic compositions which are
extremely detailed representations of 10 private apartments. All of
them were photographed as if the ceilings were taken off. Such an
unusual effect was achieved through the use of a special technique:
the overall picture of a room is an aggregate of dozens of
fragmentary photographs taken from above, and then merged using a
computer. This gives the impression that a scanner had moved over
the apartments - there are neither deformations nor blurred
fragments; the precision of the image is dazzling and the
possibility to enlarge it is practically unlimited. Due to its
laborious nature, the project took 2 years to complete.
Aneta Grzeszykowska & Jan Smaga,
Wolska 115a/32
(from the series
Plan),
2003, 127x96cm, lambda print,
edition of 7, courtesy of the artists and Raster Gallery
"Plan" is an attempt to see everything at once in
someone's apartment, without selecting or evaluating, an absolute
X-ray of privacy. It is a gaze of the Big Brother, who peeps into
homes like playhouses, excited by the fact that all the toys are
so precisely made. At the same time, it is a perfect sociological
documentation of how an individual organizes his or her own immediate
environment.
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Every
composition - apartment - comprises several separate parts,
which correspond to the layout of walls dividing the space
into individual rooms. The mosaic-like structure tempts one
to manipulate it - to switch the individual pictures, and
this characterizes one of the fundamental features of architecture
- that is, the arbitrary way of organizing living space. Squares,
rectangles, and other geometrical shapes have managed to subjugate
human individualism and simplify our social life in an amazingly
easy and simple way. We don't even consider what (who) is
behind (our) wall. Those pictures make us realize that the
life of a community can be easily described using geometrical
figures - square bathrooms and kitchens (with an appropriate
number of human figures in every small compartment). "Plan"
however, is not so ruthless. (text courtesy of Raster Gallery
in Warsaw)
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Aneta Grzeszykowska & Jan Smaga, Reflection,
2004,
lightbox, 75,5x36,5x33 cm,
courtesy of the artists and Raster Gallery |
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clinical detachment that seems, at first glance, to characterize
the “Plan” series gives way to a fascinating sociological
study of human domestic life. The viewer becomes not only a
voyeur, but also an anthropologist, making new discoveries within
each image the longer it is studied from above. What is the
relationship between the people we see sitting and lying down
in their apartments? Why have they chosen these particular belongings
to furnish their homes? How did they reach this moment in time?
The dizzying complexity of daily existence is exposed in Grzeszykowska
and Smaga's work, allowing us to recognize not only what makes
us the same, but also that which makes us unique. |
Aneta Grzeszykowska & Jan Smaga, detail from
Żytnia 79/2
(from the series Plan),
2003, 110x96 cm, lambda print,
edition of 7, courtesy of the artists and Raster Gallery |
Aneta Grzeszykowska & Jan Smaga,
segment no. 3 from Swimming Pool,
2003,
100x72 cm, lambda print, edition of 2,
courtesy of the artists and Raster Gallery
Please note: the
exhibition can be seen online (www.robertmann.com)
beginning March 10, 2005.
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