Dorota Podlaska – There and Back

There and Back is a kind of Dorota Podlaska's painterly diary made during her residency stay at Svenska Yrkeshogskolan in Nykarleby. This, however, is not a meticulous relation. Instead, it is something of a visual notation of experiences and free digressions made on the margin of the artist's daily life, while she tried to come to terms with the Scandinavian landscape and a local Finnish culture. Small paintings of elongated shape build a narration with no continuity, something fragmentary. Episodes, scenes, more or less illusory sensations, frames taken out of their context do not make a coherent tale but rather random, seemingly unimportant records. The artist does not situate herself in the "centre of events", she does not impose her vision nor does she claim any right to evaluate the things which surround her. She finds a peripheral position for herself and tells us about the reality she has encountered and her perception of it in an non-binding way. Similar to her earlier works which were stories in images, alluding to the sentimental style of TV soap operas or a comic-strip romance, she spins her "Finnish" story, using clichés, stereotypes and common associations. However, she makes things systematic and simpler. She is ironical and can repeat the same motif several times. Mundane monotony, the continuous "there and back" sometimes gains a comical dimension, similar to particular episodes which play with the comical aspect in absolutely normal situations.

Exhibition curator: Bożena Czubak