English Tea 

Editor: "English Tea" by Iwo Zaniewski, an oil painting with a comforting, intimate feeling. It's like a still life of everyday objects imbued with a sense of quiet domesticity. What strikes you most when you look at it? Curator: What a curious gathering of images. Tea, as an object, transcends its simple definition. Its rituals carry significant cultural weight across history, doesn't it? Beyond refreshment, it's community, contemplation, even resistance. The paraphernalia echoes this, note how each element – the teapot, the caddy, even that strand of beads – hints at stories. Is there a figure present in this image, or is this a portrait by proxy? Editor: Portrait by proxy—I like that! So you're saying these objects are almost stand-ins for a person, holding their memories? Curator: Precisely. The scene is charged with intimacy, but not entirely at ease. Do you feel the unease in the composition, how the inside feels almost crowded in comparison to the melancholy greys outside? What kind of emotional response does the painting evoke for you? Editor: A little unsettling, yes, but in a familiar way. It reminds me of coming inside on a cold day. The warmth is there, but the cold is just on the other side of the glass. Curator: The image operates within binaries, internal/external, warm/cold. The symbols on the packaging allude to something, and against the colours, something seems displaced, but what could it mean to have a cultural memory rooted in such everyday rituals. What is Zaniewski suggesting about where we root our identity, our culture, and what carries our memory? Editor: This has given me a completely different perspective on still life paintings. I'll never look at a tea cup the same way again! Curator: Nor I. Visual art presents us with an ongoing process of re-interpretation as cultural practices evolve, doesn’t it?