Dauka 5 1989

Editor: So, here we have Małgorzata Serwatka's "Dauka 5," painted in 1989 using oil paint. I’m struck by the almost dreamlike quality of it. What’s your take on this piece? Curator: From a materialist perspective, it’s interesting to consider the accessibility of oil paints to artists in Poland in 1989, right before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Were these materials readily available, or were they a symbol of Western influence and luxury? The application itself, the brushstrokes... do they speak to a particular school or more to an individual response to constraints and available resources? Editor: That’s a really interesting point about the materials and their accessibility! I hadn’t considered that. I was focusing more on the imagery. Curator: But the imagery itself is also a product, isn't it? A product of her context, her exposure, her very *access* to certain ideas, be they Eastern European folk tales or glimpses of Western art movements. This layering of imagery – the tiger, those stacked forms, even the hieroglyphic-like shapes – how does that read considering material conditions of its making? Editor: Okay, I see what you mean. It makes me wonder if those ‘hieroglyphs’ are perhaps a commentary on cultural inheritance. The shapes, the texture… they're physically built up on the canvas, almost like layers of history being applied. Curator: Precisely. Think about the labor involved. Not just the intellectual labor, but the *physical* labor of layering the paint, the repetitive act of mark-making. Does this connect to larger themes of labor, value, or cultural production? What does the chosen figuration mean considering that the painting surfaced in 1989? Editor: This really changes how I look at abstract expressionism! I often see it as quite individualistic, but you're framing it as heavily influenced by material conditions and production. Curator: Exactly. It is about broadening that narrative, showing art is never created in a vacuum. Hopefully we can appreciate and reflect this aspect, too.