​Izabela Kowalczyk

Dialog, 2000 - 2002, paintings and prints

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I made this series in the early 2000s. At that time my painting was still quite narrative.
Looking back, I am surprised to see how much the formal issues, which drive my search today, were already present then.

Cut-out papers replacing sketches, through which I was already intuitively questioning the relationship between flat form and volume; relief painting; the large superimposed flat areas; transparency… Even my future leaning towards geometric abstraction was already announcing itself.

 

The collection entitled Dialogue presents interiors with tables and chairs, which signify a possibility of contact, a potential of communication and convey an absence of the body, representing a potential dialogue which does not exists.

The paintings and prints, close to monochrome, tell stories of the human condition, the feeling of alienation due to the superficial forms of communication, which result in the loss of traditional forms of togetherness.

During their creation I was accompanied by two ideas: an idea of ​​the meeting place - symbol of a need to establish a dialogue with the Other, as well as an idea of ​​​​the free place, attached to the image of a chair as a potential human presence.

The chairs exist in the images, next to each other but not together. Communication and exchange are potential, present but suspended, as if asleep.

The chair invites a reflection on the human condition. It talks about the waiting, the loneliness, the emptiness and the alienation, which often accompany the life of mankind.

In the 21st century, the feeling of isolation on the one hand, indifference to others and lack of sensitivity on the other, are becoming common phenomena. As common as the chair itself.