Living Room in Kaszewiec 

Editor: Here we have "Living Room in Kaszewiec" by Iwo Zaniewski, an oil painting with visible impasto. It has this dreamlike, almost faded quality. What are your initial thoughts looking at this piece? Curator: The materiality really strikes me. The use of oil paint and impasto isn't just about creating an image, but about exploring the very act of making. Zaniewski draws attention to the labor involved, the physicality of applying paint. How does that impasto influence your reading of the scene? Editor: I think the visible brushstrokes add to the sense of transience, like the moment is slipping away. It keeps it from feeling posed or still. Curator: Precisely. Now consider the "living room" itself. It's not just a domestic space but a site of social production, perhaps even consumption. The arrangement, the furniture, even the obscured figures carrying trays, speak to specific labor relationships, and likely social class, wouldn't you agree? Editor: Definitely, I'm noticing the potential commentary on class now, seeing the blurred figures bringing something in—as though the residents are being served. Curator: And what about the clock, almost ghostly? How does the suggestion of fleeting time figure into the image, and possibly social meanings? It also seems interesting that time is suspended—how the domestic tasks have a rhythm but, for this space, perhaps things are slower? Editor: That's a good point. I hadn’t considered the temporal aspect. The clock, the ghostly figures, they contribute to a feeling that these workers are doing something tedious while the inhabitants live with an entirely separate consciousness. Curator: So, by examining the material processes and the way they construct this domestic scene, we can start to unpack some potentially charged social relations embedded within the seemingly innocent portrayal of a living room. How powerful it is that Zaniewski seems to have done it with simple execution. Editor: It’s interesting to view it not as just an interior, but an investigation into labor, process and making.