Space talks

Ewelina Figarska tries to express herself in various artistic disciplines, however, she cherishes painting most. This is where she expresses herself to the fullest, and this is where her perception of space is most strongly visible.

For the artist, paintings are like living creatures, preserving various experiences, and at the same time they reflect the ‘inner melody’ that originates from man. This specific relationship is the source of mystery, and according to the artist painting acquires almost sacred power. In the play with the viewer it is essential to create a metaphysical atmosphere, which is sometimes present both in pictorial motifs (as in her staged photographs) and in special relations of artistic means of expression in painting.

In her artwork abstract notions are expressed not by symbolic forms, but by mood, play with planes, relations of colours or light. The real objects that constitute the source of the images take on the shape of colourful planes, among which there are suggestive, barely allusive shapes. The artist first tries to evoke a general feeling resulting from the form, its specific experience, and then a realistic image of space, consistent with our life experiences.

Ewelina Figarska shows a tendency to simplify and synthesize, as can be seen in her graphic works, in the world of which she is looking for an appropriate equivalent for her feelings. What strikes us in her woodcuts is the spontaneity and sketchiness of depiction, and in her lithographic Madonnas the departure from copying culturally fixed iconographic patterns. Here the sacred is hidden in a mystery, an understatement, austerity of means of expression.

Small images refer to the form of assemblage, evoking echoes of the matter painting tradition. The prepared rough substrate has been covered with subtle signs, creating references to something hidden, incomprehensible, which is primordial and not yet woven with a net of conventional references. The works embody a desire – one of the most important feelings for the artist, for which it is difficult to find a pictorial representation, except for trivialized anecdotes. The artist surrenders to the instinct where one cannot yet rely on speculation.

In large painting works, fragments of pictorial references appeal to our impressions or emotions that allow us to keep the space image in our memory. Visual elements come from observation; shapes that embody the remembered phenomena appear. They become the source of our associations and subjective feelings.

The painting becomes an experience. It is not only a set or construction of architectural elements, the relations between their size and characteristic, rationally perceptible attributes, but also a set of other, non-rational phenomena. Ewelina Figarska makes it possible for us – to some extent – to unveil the subsequent stages of creation, also to deconstruct the space, to find further possibilities to read the image, to build various meanings.

Thus, the artist does not express herself in painting by using realistic means, but by composing an arrangement of colourful elements, focused around a palette of greys, blues and browns, a contrast of warm and cool tones. In life, we often construct a vision of space, referring to the general colour note, to the character of light, and sometimes even just to the smell or memorable sounds. Thanks to this we can recognize it and, what is more important, embed events, emotions and experiences in it. The artist draws us into the space she has created. By facing her own emotions, which she endows with a visual form, she encourages the viewer to talk about their impressions provoked by visual associations, including those that do not function in the space of a visual concrete, but in the deeper layers of our emotional memory.

It becomes clear that man is important for the artist, even though he is not always present in the explored space. A human figure as an imagery motif has appeared in her staged photographs and graphics. On the one hand, people attached to certain conventions, traditions or fashions seek closeness, and on the other hand, they isolate from each other, building a wall around them which is made up of shyness, prudence or fear of the consequences of dropping the mask off.

The human figures that appear in the non-painting manifestations by Ewelina Figarska, occupying the same space (as in the family), actually function in different worlds. Man is not even able to see himself (in the mirror he sees only his reflection – an illusion). Of course, he has some idea of himself, but it is only a subjective construct; in relation with others, we also usually show up as a kind of creation, usually consistent with what we think of ourselves, or how we want to be perceived by others. Hence the human being’s confusion, which is expressed in many ways in this artwork. The images of human figures are sketchy, simplified, incomplete. Eventually, man disappears as a pictorial motif from the realm of the depicted world. What remains is space, preserving the memory of his experiences and emotions.

Ewelina Figarska’s artwork has been yet another artistic attempt to define the relation between reality and the image created in art, an attempt to answer the question what is the boundary separating the truth from illusion, both in art and in the space of our existence.

Dariusz Leśnikowski

Transl. Elżbieta Rodzeń-Leśnikowska