| Being Ensnared Anna Czaban Fragment of the text featured in a catalogue from the Guerrillas group show(2011) ISBN 978-83-61886-26-6 |
(...) An elaborate openwork tunnel the shape of a huge
funnel that grows out of a metal construction of the
gallery’s ceiling is an installation by Ewa Axelrad titled
Plant. In the title of the work the artist provides a footnote
– Eng. plant 1. tree, shrub or herb. 2. to put or set in the ground for growth. 3. trap. 4. to place firmly or forcibly; power plant 5. power plant, thus disclosing possible interpretations. A monumental object was intended as an upturned smokestack of a nuclear power plant. Unfinished, it resembles rather a tornado which you can enter, shifting the body to the position of its centre, point zero. The work recreates perfectly the ceiling pattern and therefore we do not know where we deal with actual gallery space and where the artist’s project starts. One can say that the artist takes hold of this space and imperceptibly claims and appropriates it. The work done is so impeccable that it is hard to say what kind of material was used to make the object. And, not to damage its charm, let it remain a secret. Axelrad one more time* tantalises the viewer by attractive precision and subtlety of her project. This is done only to make a viewer discover a mire of uncomfortable thoughts that lay at its origin and which at this moment become part of the work. It is charming in order to confuse, and the more it enchants the more it is confusing (...). * In March 2011 at the Arsenal Municipal Gallery the artist made a site-specific installation SUCHE (The Dry), also intended to entice the viewer by a clear and pure situation, which however generated uncomfortable and unpleasant feelings. PDF version ____________________ |
| Zuzanna Hadryś & Michał Lasota The text featured in MIR group show (2011) ISBN 978-83-89778-22-2 |
Ewa Axelrad's photography installation is a work that
requires the audience to meticulously decode the hints left for
them by the artist. On a large lightbox situated in a not
easily-accessible part of a darkened room there appears an
object whose shape resembles a rock, irregular stone block;
the photograph can be viewed only from a short
distance. The other element of the installation is a clove oil aroma, used as an anaesthetic in dentistry procedures. The work brings a myriad of unexpected and disturbing associations related to domesticity such as cleanliness, safety and the intimacy of physical contact. * IS IT SAFE, instalatio 2011 PDF version ____________________ |
| SUCHE Anna Czaban Press release for SUCHE solo show (2011) |
Ewa Axelrad's works start with thinking of (architectural)
space, its physical and functional qualities as well as its
subtle tensions and dynamics that one experiences in
response to it. The artist perturbs viewer's conventional
codes of behaviour, lets him/her into a state of
confusion, doubtfulness and disturbance. The methods
she employs are very subtle, and formally the works are
very simple and aesthetic. The most recent piece SUCHE
is a site-specific installation, which utilizes the
architectural qualities of the Arsenal Gallery's ground
floor, causing an uncertainty of what has been built
specifically for this show and what is the actual, ordinary
shape of the gallery. Axelrad justifies: The indefiniteness
of these elements gives a viewer the possibility to
immerse themselves in the work on many different
levels and allows him/her to question their function.
I'm inclined to settings in which the viewer can be drawn
in by seductive sterility of the piece, in order to begin
a kind of autopsy that is underpinning its lure... At this
point, the viewer him/herself becomes an inextricable
component of the work. In this context the motifs that
the artist brings are not coincidental - hygiene and
violence falling into a disturbing relationship.
The hygiene gets pushed to a level of disinfection, which
gets escalated to a level of erasure or even liquidation -
just a few steps away from extermination. Hygiene may
occur as an aggressive tool of control, domination and
violence, and even a war tactic element. The military is hardly implied in the work, hence it is entirely up to the viewer how far he or she will follow this trail. The artist abstracts its characteristics such as discipline, domination and hierarchy, but also smartness, cleanliness and fitness. These attributes the viewer can find in various forms, starting with proportions of the composition, through lustrous and smoothened surfaces and olfactory stimuli. All these factors are brought together in order to lure the viewer, who inevitably gets seduced and has a chance to feel like a perpetrator. The installation built upon deceitfulness, seemingly clear and straightforward, abounds with unexpectedness. The snellen chart piece (Commission) has been made in collaboration with Steven Press. PDF version |