Ariadne
Artwork Series by Pawel Mendrek, Austria
In the past hair was identified with the soul. Rytual haircutting is a method of transformation. Hair as the object of the exhibition becomes a tool with which to measure time. Understood as the framework for life, be it real or fictional, hair is a tool for shaping the form of corporeal coexistence. It delineates the area of our corporeality and the physical boundaries of our existence. The hybrid tangles are frozen reflections of emotional states and passions.
Ariadne revolves around the concept of estrangement and alienation. It is inspired by the rytual haircutting seven-year-old boys to become men and change his mental position. It reflects a sense of emigration and entangled displaced identity, objects and people. Emigration is not just a state of affairs, but a state of mind. We rarely we think about something natural, an integral part of a portrayed subject, is only a product of the process of time. Hair become the form of the portrait and a tool for measuring time. Hair is understood as a framework for life, whether it is real or fictional tool for shaping rituals and life events, or a physical form of coexistence. It marks the frame of our everyday life’s carnality, and simultaneously marks our own physical boundaries. Hair reinforces and represents a diverse background and emotional states, builds the ornament and creates a thread leading to the roots, in search of their own identity.
The exhibition is based on white. The Apricot is a typical white cube. The only accents are dark, saturated tangles, set centrally in the presented pictures, which allows them to adopt the form of sign. Stopped in their motionlessness they evoke the impression of a sacred place.
Curators:
Paulina Latham, Roman Lewandowski, Miroslava Urbanowa, Christofer Weiss, Lena Wichierkiewicz
Presented:
Baltic Contemporary Art Gallery, Slupsk
Apricot Gallery, Rag Factory, London
Loft Acht Gallery, Vienna
Kunstraum B, Kiel
Flying Gallery Fundation, Warsaw
Untitled
Drawing
100 x 70 x 1 cm
Graphite, Paper, and Pencil on Paper
Untitled (V1)
Drawing
70 x 100 x 1 cm
Graphite and Paper on Paper
Water
Drawing
70 x 50 x 1 cm
Graphite, Paper, and Pencil on Paper