Mala Gallery
8, Zamkowy Sq., Warsaw (Old Town)
April 27 - May 8, 2004
Opening: Tuesday, April 27th, 6 p.m.

 

 

Radosław Wojnar - NOW

 

Radosław Wojnar "NOW", exhibition in Mala Gallery, Warsaw, April/May 2004

 

The spaces of writing

ENCIRCLED by photographic images we are used to them so much that we do not perceive their presence. We are looking at the world through "photographic eyes". We have already contracted the habit of "not seeing" photographs like we do not see the air that is around us. This habitual attitude to photography makes our vision indiscriminate and passive, it does not force (does not provoke) us to ask questions. The very fact of negation and spirit of contrariness towards this phenomenon caused that quite often in art the photography itself becomes a subject of photographic works. Does photography ceased to be "transparent, invisible"? What happens when a photograph is an image of a writing/text, when alphabet itself is a subject of a photograph? Are we reading the text not seeing (penetrating through) photography? Is it like if we were perceiving only the shape of letters when looking at a text written in unknown to us alphabet and therefore not understanding it? To what degree photographs of text, of residual fragments of sentences and individual words is a testimony to the medium's transparency? And what in such moments is happening to the meaning of the words? These are the questions provoked by photographs of Radosław Wojnar.

Photography and related imaging techniques are, according to McLuhan, delivering cool messages. Some time ago I wrote a text about similarity of photography and printed text. In both cases results are not physical traces of an artist-creator. It is impossible to say who took a particular photograph by judging from a grain of silver or who wrote the text by guessing from printing types. Both photography and text carries a spectator to areas where creative and spiritual intentions of artist are being revealed but they do not depend on manual process of creating physical existence of work. In photographs of Wojnar I can find two analogies between artistic intention and the form of a picture/photograph. The first similarity reminds me unistic paintings of Strzemiński. The second reaches to symbolism of writing, similarly like pinhole camera pictures of Jesseca Ferguson or photographic illustrations of Sean Kernan from his "The Secret Books" series. The photographs of Radosław Wojnar are conducting with a beholder a discourse about aesthetic subtleties of text's form while preserving so called transparency of the medium and purity, clarity of the pictorial form. They also show a mysterious world existing in our memory and subconsciousness, the world that is much like the one Alice found behind the looking glass.

Grzegorz Przyborek
April 2004

transl.: Krzysztof Wojciechowski

 

Radosław Wojnar "NOW", exhibition in Mala Gallery, Warsaw, April/May 2004

 

ONCE again we are witnessing a close link between graphic arts and photography. Apparently this is already a very exploited relation. The works of Radosław Wojnar from his "Now" series prove that there is still a possibility to find an equilibrium between these areas. The artist tries to achieve this equilibrium by multiplication of the word "now" ("teraz"), which becomes a graphic sign being at the same time the basic element of all photographs in the series. Dozen or so variations on using up the same word consistently fulfills a minimalist formula the artist imposed on himself strictly adhering to the once chosen idea. The result is consistent series of photo-graphics that are an attempt to join together these close areas.

M.G.

transl.: Krzysztof Wojciechowski

 

Radosław Wojnar "NOW", exhibition in Mala Gallery, Warsaw, April/May 2004

 

 

See also:

• R. Wojnar on WebGaleria.art.pl
• R. Wojnar at "Luksfera" gallery / on-line store

 

In FOTOTAPETA:

• All exhibitions in Mala Gallery since 1997

 

 

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