Traces

Tymoteusz Lekler is an artist with a large and valued oeuvre, and at the same time he is still looking for new solutions. The imperative of ‘search’ forces him to wander around the world, both physically, visiting various – not necessarily ‘attractive’ – disturbing places, as well as exploring the medium of photography, which gives rise to the evolution of his artistic manifestations.

One of the series of photographs by Tymoteusz Lekler is titled ‘Nieważne, gdzie jestem’ [Never Mind Where I Am]. It is very symptomatic and important for interpreting the photographer’s artwork. The choice of motifs and the way they are presented indicate the overriding goal of the artist – to create an inspiring work that will respect the rules of visual development; here they are transferred to the land of light and shadow. Photographs could have been taken anywhere, but... they were taken in a specific place, because that is where the qualities that were later visible in the photographic image were harmonized. The artist moves around the world, but regardless of where he is, he seeks ‘these places’, ‘this atmosphere’, ‘these cases’. Prosaic fragments of our surroundings – fragments of streets, house walls, scaffolding, metal constructions – are seemingly unworthy to be captured. The artist’s choices reveal their attributes that were not initially noticed.

Most of the works that can be described as ‘purely abstract’ do not require any explanation. They arouse admiration only by, based on careful observation, selection of elements, their proportions and size, their colours and textures, the rendition of the play of light and shadow on the surface. Sometimes the colourless frames are enriched with additional colourful inclusions, which become the source of plane’s divisions and initiate tensions. These works can be classified, assigned, we can recall historical-artistic reference points (constructivism, concrete art, dadaism), determine the perception perspective. The use of aluminium sheets as a substrate and large formats endows these photographs with a cool, ‘industrial’ character, typical of works whose form directs us towards the world of abstraction. These photographs are full of paradoxes. They act almost as works of concrete art, although they are elements of visible, recognizable reality. They are far from abstraction, but they become components of geometric compositions thanks to the choice of the artist and his magical actions.

At some point Tymoteusz Lekler tried to depart (in a literal and metaphorical sense) from this practice. Although he still did not intend to be a ‘realist’ who only produces portraits of nature, he decided to weaken the abstract factor. Photographs showed more details allowing to identify reality, the space became more allusive. The artist introduced more colour. These works are still dominated by ‘image’, not by ‘narration’.

The author’s artistic education, the painter’s vision influence the selection of frames, sensitize to the artistic aspects, contrasts and rhythms. The compositions are multi-layered. Surprising combinations of planes, even those with elements of constructions cut into the basic plan or nature motifs ‘obscuring’ the view, determine spaciousness and depth. Many of the large works, due to additional technical measures, take on an almost impressionistic nature. Their varied and disturbing texture is one of their most important means of expression.

Human presence in Lekler’s photographs manifests itself only in small – though significant – traces of destruction rather than development. Man, even if present in the frame, is somehow out of place, he acts against the function of space. The places visited reveal their secrets to the artist. It takes a careful look, many hours of searching, to discover places that will give an insightful observer knowledge about the climate, people’s ways of life, their life stories, the influence of history on human fate. It is striking that in Tymoteusz Lekler’s works this happens not thanks to the reporter tricks, an obvious anecdote of realistic messages, but in compositions described as ‘abstract’, in which components are used in a non-narrative manner. A few ‘dots’ (traces of bullets), a bricked up rectangle after a window (but with a smoke stain from a chimney visible below), a couple of boards, creating compositions of horizontal and vertical lines (but separating us, living nowadays, from the testimonies of the ancient past) co-create images far from the emotionless, speculated systems of elements on the plane. This distinguishes the artist’s new photographs from the ‘older’ works created also quite recently, in which these purely visual correlations played a greater role. The motifs chosen by the artist today, to a greater extent than before, bear testimony to culture, history and fate.

Many spaces captured by the photographer are ‘non-places’. They are wounded, poor, in decline. Abandoned by people, unused, exposed to the influence of time and climate, they have lost their culture-forming role. Nobody plans any activity there any longer, they do not anticipate any continuity, rootedness, attachment. One of the key words is ‘abandonment’.

Photographs are ruled by ubiquitous emptiness as an emotional and semantic quality. Feelings (such as cold, sorrow, repressed memory) are important. More important than the specific meanings we would like to give to compositions. Photographs reveal to what extent space and its elements still hide traces of ‘what is long gone’.

It is difficult to recognize Venice, Berlin or Szczecin in the works. Because Lekler does not photograph Venice, Berlin or Szczecin. He photographs sadness and astonishment, greyness and unobvious beauty (even if expressed in a set of elements that on a daily basis cause rather reluctance or fear). He does not create an ‘official’ documentation, but a ‘private’ one.

It concerns the whole, rich artistic creation of the artist. Also in his – increasingly rare – commercial photography we will find deliberate actions that go beyond the boundaries of what is perfect, refined and conventional. Roughness, atypicality, sometimes coincidence, make one want to watch Lekler’s works. These are not photographs that we go past quickly during the exhibition. They are full of surprises, unexpected details and ‘this something’, an atmosphere that attracts and makes us look.

Over the years, the artist has taken part in numerous individual and group exhibitions. The way of exhibiting his photographs often depended on the size and proportion of the interior, the place his works took in relation to other works, the mood, the light in the room. The exhibition of his latest works is ‘designed’. The photographs are shown in a characteristic, thoughtful way, two works mounted in one frame. This combinations are not accidental and unchangeable. Due to the planned, deliberate composition of pairs of photographs during the exhibition, it is easier to recognize the intentions of the artist, present in his single pictures. Of course, the composition of these frames is governed by specific motivations, however, putting them into pairs reveals additional, specific relations, almost metaphysically linking places that are physically very distant from each other.

It is interesting to search for the keys that govern such combinations. Certainly, the instinct and knowledge of an educated artist play a significant role here. In his works, the author notices tensions concerning construction, colour relations, linear relations, similar picture motifs, and a similar mood. The multitude of associations and needs causes that in specific works we can sometimes see both continuation, similarity or extension of the artistic concept, as well as contrast, the opposition visible in colour, texture and the kind of emotions evoked. There are also many juxtapositions that move away from pure plastic speculation; they are intuitive, emotional, and at the same time closer to the viewers, who can look for hidden connections and their own interpretations.

The way Tymoteusz Lekler looks at the world reveals something else. Something that is beyond the artist’s own craftsmanship, his preferences, personal intentions and imperatives. This phenomenon concerns all of us, it touches the way we perceive the world, living in the time of constant haste, lack of time, repetitiveness, standards and conventions.

Despite the fact that in Tymoteusz Lekler’s photographs many viewers see objects they have known for years, and even pass by every day in the places where they live, they do not recognize them in the photographs. Visions arouse surprise and disbelief. In our current perception habits, there is no room for a pause, an insightful look or reflection. The camera lens held in front of our eyes forces us to have a different attitude towards space or objects. While photographing, we see details that make us give things life, identity and spirit.

The artist himself finds some of these details only on the screen of a monitor or on the plane of the already produced print. The hardly noticeable signs – symbols, spots, inscriptions – are the traces of human expression that have already broken off their real connections with the background, although they are still stuck there. Nature itself has been involved in this message with strange interferences in the ground, in the landscape. The past speaks to us in a secret language of traces.

Dariusz Leśnikowski

Transl. Elżbieta Rodzeń-Leśnikowska