photography
Nie ma chyba substancji bardziej niż krew nacechowanej potocznie rozumianym dramatyzmem i literacko rozumianą dramatycznością. Na wczesnych obrazach i zdjęciach Bogny Burskiej krew pojawia się – niezależnie od swoich estetycznych, sensualnych, kolorystycznych i symbolicznych walorów – jako nośnik dramatycznej narracji, jej wyobrażony punkt kulminacyjny, a może czasem epilog. Tak działa krew na śniegu na dziewięciu fotografiach z cyklu Droga (2003) czy krwawy naszyjnik tytułowej bohaterki w kadrze z filmu Margarita (2006). Krwawe obrazy, poplamione krwią okna, krew na marmurowych antycznych rzeźbach, naczynia krwionośne w przestrzennych instalacjach przetykane skrzepami i puklami włosów – to nie obiekty do kontemplacji, lecz dowody w sprawie, fragmenty historii, wskazówki akcji, ślady działania. Krew staje się pretekstem do genealogiczno-historycznej opowieści w spektaklu i filmie Tisiphone and Alecto (2017), w której zapośredniczenie historii przez krew pozwala tę historię aktualizować choćby pytaniem o dziedziczenie odpowiedzialności za popełnioną niegdyś przemoc.
There is thus no better leaven for drama than blood. This is clearly visible in two series of photographs, titled Life Is Beautiful and Algorithm (2002), where young, budding flowers intertwine with images of an operating room, and the growth of a carmine flower bud is contrasted with the stitching up of a wound. Although the processes illustrated are reversed in time and seem to contradict one another in terms of aesthetics, the dramaturgy constructed by the artist in both cases is essentially identical.
One can thus assume that before Burska turned to literary drama, she first thoroughly examined its structure, its composition, and tested the possibilities of its use, if not deconstruction. She forced her imagination to engage itself in the reconstruction of events, she created sequences of image-events, image-traces and image-actions in order to observe the development of the plot and reveal narrative structures. Finally, she studied the emplotment process itself, building a butterfly house in Bytom’s Kronika gallery.
excerpt from the text Acts of Action by Joanna Krakowska, catalogue Blood and Sugar. Works 2000–2021, published by Gdańsk City Gallery, Trafostacja Sztuki in Szczecin, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, 2021
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In her series of photographs Vazante, Marmur i woda (Marble and Water), Książka (Book), Deszcz (Rain), Odwilż (The Thaw), Droga (The Road), form is of crucial importance. First of all, a single work of art consists of several photographs arranged into a geometric grid. A rectangle made of smaller rectangles. The composition edges on mathematical perfection; it has a hint of obsession, just as obsessive is our addiction to beauty and its influence.
On the one hand, the structures seem to have been inspired by the tradition of composition based on abstract geometric forms in painting, as well as by modernist design – represented by Malevich, Mondrian, Van Doesburg, and, in Poland, Stażewski. In the case of the red and white colour combination, even the colour range remains as minimalistic as in early modernist works. On the other hand, Burska’s works are influenced by the use of photography in conceptual art and its analytical perception of the visual medium. The conceptualists employed a scientific approach to film and photography, examining the characteristic features of these image-recording systems. This was a prevalent trend in Polish art of the 1970s. Conceptualists drew abundantly from documentary or scientific photography as they explored areas not normally considered part of the domain of art.
Similar inspiration can be noticed in Bogna Burska’s photographs, which, on a certain level, reveal a scientific or utilitarian character. Some of them show a close relation to botanical, meteorological and medical photography – as in the case of views of the sky and flowers in Życie jest piękne (Life is Beautiful), blood and wounds in Tatuaż (Tattoo), Ornamenty (Ornaments), Algorytm (Algorithm), Historia jednej miłości (A Love Story), Detale (Details). The associations are strengthened by their clarity, coldness, rigid structural organization, repetitiveness and appearance of objectivism.
It seems that these ordered compositions of photographs might be approached from the point of view of Immanuel Kant’s Enlightenment aesthetics, according to which the beauty of an object and of experience should be objective and based on disinterested examination. The receivers are neutral and separated from the aesthetic object. Their objectivism enables them to experience the beauty of the work. The geometrical order of Bogna Burska’s works widens the distance so that this kind of neutral perception, being a purely optical experience, is almost forced upon the viewers. Such neutral perception ends where poetry and decoration start to emanate from the artist’s photographs. It is the moment when the conceptual examination of a medium is transformed into a study of beauty. Not only is Bogna Burska’s art meant to study beauty, but also to provide it.
excerpt from the text Reflections on Beauty by Paweł Leszkowicz, catalogue Bogna Burska. Rainfall, published by Bytom Cultural Centre, 2006