Grażyna Szymała-Wołyńska keeps coming back to volumes⎯sculpted ones: wooden, ceramic, open or unfolding like ancient Egyptian papyruses or rolled paper sheets with invisible writing (“The Bible”), but also closes, as if they were defending themselves against reading their contents. A special place in the author’s library is reserved for the “Oath”, a halved trunk, freshly polished. Two halves, different as two pages in a book opened at random are bound, maybe against the nature of the wood, by a pair of metal binders. Such a strong contrast emphasizes gravity and fighting the will to break its law. Is this the weight of the oath? The question remains.
Another piece of work based on the rule of contrast is entitled “Calling”. Five round sheets of glass resting on the same number of stone steps proceeds towards the center, by gradation of size and location. Or, perhaps, it is the other way round: the sheets diverge upwards, suspended by rising steps. Visual ambivalence borders on acoustic ambivalence of the title calling. We do not know where the voice comes from and where it is directed, we cannot see whether the calling comes up or down. The lack of unambiguous conclusion strengthens anxiety and uncertainty. There is a stable arrangement of forms and seemingly stable arrangement meanings, but it is all volatile.
The vertical “Flight” sculpture rises towards the open sky. Wooden rectangular plaques, with gold abrasions reminiscent of light, sculpted of ordinary trunks piled upon each other, portray birds flying away. Their grooved outlines create a strong suggestion of movement in opposite directions. The birds only reach the edges of the trunks. From there, they can watch the open space they are about to seize. They will have their magic flight, their mystical journey to other worlds. Within this context, we can also find a man for whom “(...) flight can be either an active flight of might, or a passive abduction into space. In both these cases, flight means taking off from the ground and losing safe support.”**** The “Flight” then combines ornithology with human dreams or human submission.
A deeply human element can be seen in all the artist’s sculptures. Only its personifications and objectification. It especially visible in an incredibly bold concept of a medal entitled “One Life”. The medal is the most simple, yet the most moving one. Two round glass panes (14 centimeters each), bound by a metal ring, enclose a symbolic drop of blood. The signature red moves when the viewing angle changes and a transparent glass circle reflects the environment. The form of the medal is a proposal, one of the possible versions of the chosen concept, as it encompasses a hypothetical value. “One Life” in a large scale will be a great complement to open organic space and will become a fully autonomous sculpture: a fragile monument to a persistent life and a persistent form of a fragile life.
One life...
* The title of the sculpture by Grażyna Szymała-Wołyńska.
** Popczyk, M. “Utrwalanie nieobecności.” Wizje i re-wizje. Wielka księga estetyki w Polsce. Kraków: Univeritas, 2007.
*** Adorno, T.W. Minima Moralia: Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1986.
**** Sacha, M. “Piekło. Topos Lotu.” Estetyka czterech żywiołów. Ed. K. Wilkoszewska. Kraków: Univeritas, 2002.
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