March 8, 2023 / 6:00 pm / Gallery Next to ZPAF / Plac Zamkowy 8, Warsaw / exhibition open until April 6, 2023
The design was inspired by my grandfather's stamp collection. It depicted a model of the world dominated by national soothsayers, great leaders, enlightened sages, scientists and artists. It reflected a social and cultural system in which men held the dominant position of power and women were marginalized. Popularly perpetuated images concealed a coded disproportion and a multidimensional paradox.
Referring to the Jungian concept of human development, I direct attention to the need to find the balance possible by combining opposites. In Chinese philosophy, the feminine aspect is identified with darkness, cold and the Moon, while the masculine aspect is identified with activity, heat and the Sun. Complementing them is a holistic view of the forces at work in nature. Unlike Eastern culture which spreads unity of difference, in Western culture dualism separates matter from spirit, reason from emotion, male from female, life from death. This separation promotes detachment from nature and a deteriorating well-being for both sexes. A body subjected to constant stress and difficult emotions succumbs to disease. The worn stereotypes, shame, anger and sadness slowly poison the soul and body. This is countered by the female element. It is like lymph, which, unlike pumped blood, squeezes through the vessels using muscles. It circulates below the surface affecting the immune system of the entire body. According to insightful Jungian Marion Woodman, this invisible force "The feminine side of our existence lives with a slower rhythm, is less rational. It moves with more spontaneity, is more open, accepts life as it is, without judgment."
The choice of technique was not accidental, in the cyanotype technique I find the poetry of the coexistence of duality. An image emerges from darkness through direct light. It is created without the use of a camera. Under the influence of the sun's rays, the hand-prepared collage is written on paper covered with a light-sensitive substance. The works are varied, in the process of toning they gain a unique hue. Similarly, in the pursuit of a balance of opposing forces, through deconstruction and redefinition of the value system, I see an opportunity for a world where diversity and possibility reign, rather than uniformity and necessity.
Gallery curator Jolanta Rycerska
Curator of the exhibition Prof. Krzysztof Trusz
Kasia Kalua Krynska
Architect, designer, photographer. Doctor of fine arts. He is a member of the Union of Polish Artists Photographers. Lecturer, educator, juror in photography competitions. Her photographs have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Poland, Ireland, Portugal, Holland, Germany, Spain and the USA.
Specializes in emotional, portrait and fine art photography, using traditional and alternative photography. An enthusiast of analog photography, she works with light-sensitive materials. She experiments with 19th century photographic processes such as Wet Collodion, Van Dyke, Salt Paper and Cyanotype. Author of the album BLUE MOON GARDEN.
Winner of photography competitions: Black & White Spider Awards, International Color Award and Photos de Femmes. Her series Between Two Moons in wet collodion technique won first place in the Wet Plate Competition Canada. With her series Silence of the Heart in cyanotype technique, she won the Grand Prix in the Vintage Photo Festival. The Blue Moon Garden series won the Julia Margaret Cameron Award in the international competition and was presented at analogNOW!, Berlin Photo Week, Foto Art Festival, Month of Photography Bratislava and the Biennial of Fine Art and Documentary Photography in Barcelona.