ANNA ORLIKOWSKA: GOOD THINGS HAPPEN IN THREES
by Jane Neal
Polish-born artist Anna Orlikowska is still only 27 yet the intensity of her large-format, richly detailed photographs and surreal films suggests a far more experienced eye.
Although photography accounts for the main body of her work, Orlikowska refutes the label 'artist photographer', preferring instead to describe her practice as one that is rooted firmly in conceptualism but aided by the tools of photography and video.
The majority of the scenes depicted in Orlikowska's photographs are drawn from her own, often very personal experiences. She grew up in Lodz, a city best known for its industry, and consequently, industrialised areas and equipment are a habitual presence in her photographs. The 'Danse Macabre' series of 2005 depicts three images: a former factory-space re-appropriated as a second-hand clothes shop, Orlikowska's parents' apartment, dominated by the presence of Orlikowska's invalid grandmother in her metal frame 'hospital' bed, and Orlikowska's father's workshop.
What makes Orlikowska's work so interesting and beguiling is that although the subject matter could not be more personal to the vision of a 21st-century artist from Lodz, the format she consigns to the work is the most traditional and prescribed of western art history - that of the triptych. 'The choice of this format occurred subconsciously,' comments Orlikwska. 'For me the number three stands for something that is complete in itself, something perfect.'
If this sounds somewhat mystical, then it's hardly surprising to hear that Orlikowska is committed to revealing what lies beneath the physicality of the world that surrounds us. She stresses: 'I am not interested in documentary photography. I'd much rather conjure up an alternative reality in my images, That's why I distort reality to create this uncanny atmosphere.'
Orlikowska takes her pictures with a medium format camera. The distortion occurs in the next step of the process, on her computer. She merges the images to form a panorama and scales up the resulting single image to 3 x 1 m - a size sufficient to command and hold the attention of the viewer. The wide-angle effect and the wealth of detail present in the finished piece evoke the inherent drama of film stills. Indeed Orlikowska cites Cindy Sherman (perhaps the most well-known artist appropriator of film stills) as an early influence - although works such as Agoraphobia, 2006, which features a factory interior complete with the cloth and machinery necessary to the continuation of Lodz's textile production, owe more to the likes of Thomas Demand or Jeff Wall in terms of their feel and subject matter.
Although Orlikowska is technically adept, this in itself is not sufficient to achieve the eerie atmospheres and sense of gravitas that constitute her practice. As she did when she was searching for a format within which to construct her works and arrived at the triptych, Orlikowska looked to art history for inspiration in terms of 'setting the scene'. The result is a marriage of the persistent themes of the Baroque - vanitas, the memento mori and the cenophobic need to fill every gap - and the allegory and charm of Flemish Master, Pieter Brueghel's genre paintings. Like Breughel's 1568 work, The Peasant Dance, many of Orlikowska's photographs and films seem to tremble with the weight of life's absurdity and vulgarity.
One such example is the Worm Films triptych. The first part features vivid red mosquito larvae wriggling against a stark, white background accompanied by the strains of music by Philip Glass. The second film depicts a ladybird stuck on its back, rocking around on the ground in order to try and right itself to the tune of minimalist zen. The final part of the triptych demands the most visceral response from the viewer. The screen is filled by a seething mass of maggots, jostling against each other to the accompaniment of a light-hearted cembalo piece by Mozart. Each of the maggots seems intent on reaching the top of the pile, only to be swallowed up and pushed under by one of his peers. The piece is an obvious enough metaphor for the meaning of life and all its brevity and futility, but though it's a story familiar to all of us, Orlikowska's film is so fresh and compelling it feels as though we're seeing the reality for the first time.
This is a rare gift, and it's one which is earning the young Orlikowska a growing and deserved reputation as an exciting and convincing artist. Good things, as well as bad, it seems, happen in threes.
Jane Neal
Anna Orlikowska is represented by Program Gallery in Warsaw. She was awarded the second prize in Deutsche Bank's Competition for Young Polish Art at Zachêta, Warsaw, in 2005. This October she will have a solo exhibition at Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art Gallery in Milan, and Orlikowska is also participating in a group exhibition in Warsaw and Lodz entitled 'Binary Cities' beginning in October at Gallery XXI in Warsaw. In January 2007 she will have a solo exhibition at Gallery Balucka, Lodz, Poland.
Program Gallery
Gen. Andersa Str. 20
00-201 WARSAW , POLAND
Tel: 0048 22 6354044
Email: galeria@artprogram.art.pl
www.artprogram.art.pl
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