Whole Burnt Flowers
Diana Gallery, Copenhagen, DK, 2022
Galeria Miejska Arsenał, Poznań, PL, 2021

FIRE

The first thought was floral compositions aflame. The fire, which actually consumes the planet, is an ardent sign of social inequalities, discrimination, and polarization. The phenomena of social oppression are part of an intersectional process of environmental destruction. The alchemy of emotions comes from the inability to extinguish the flames of frustration. Therefore, I engage with it.

With a meditative practice of drawing and a dance ritual, using my own body, I seek contact with fire's nature. I engage with all my senses. I engage with the traditions of shamanism: what is to be expressed on the outside must first be discovered from within. Unrestrained and threatening emotions can reveal their inner wisdom. I take on the role of a mediator. Aggression is transformed into anger, clarity of vision, strength, and desire. These emotions, once set in motion, transform themselves into the heat of passion, the urge. I know that if I delve deeper, I will find a sense of care and oneness.

Fire seems to be something immaterial. It connects the physical with the world of intuition, vision, emotion, inspiration, and longing. However, it always needs a carrier, a body. Fire appears in my works as a potentially destructive force, but it is also a partner in dance. I discover fire in my own body. The movement of fire reveals a new world of shapes; in a drawing practice, it translates into different forms: electrical discharges, broadly embracing flames, dancing strands, swirling tongues, and nets of intertwined veins. The superimposed planes, by their structure, resemble flowers.

FLOWERS

Flowers symbolize social dilemmas; they may be both poison and cure. In a propitiatory act, I offer their ephemeral beauty as a fire offering, hoping for purification and a new beginning. In my drawings, I refer to floral themes in relation to both the Western tradition of botanical illustration and ikebana, the Japanese art of plant arrangement. Still lifes, flower compositions, and their representations have always been full of meaning.

Drawing from them, I add new symbols corresponding to contemporary dilemmas. I dive into an intuitive process where plants represent particular areas affected by pain. The presented drawing installations, the video, and art objects refer to pollution in the environment: water, air, and soil. They also touch on spheres of social violence: racism, chauvinism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism.

BartekArobal Kociemba

Bartek
Arobal
Kociemba