“Smells Like Teen Spirit” is the title of the ongoing solo show of Dawid Czycz held in the Nocny Art Patrol Gallery in Warsaw. The eponymous reference to Nirvana’s track heralds the mental voyage to the painter’s teenage years in the 1990s. However, this journey will be taken not necessarily by a rebel, but rather by a millennial who looks back at their past with a dose of nostalgia. Representations of scenes will serve as backgrounds for a story about transience. In order for things to not get too serious, Czycz will tell the story about the bygone days and maturing by using his unique sense of humour and…a banana. This time around, formally speaking we’re dealing with less Basquiat-style bravado, and more of a distance typical of Warhol. Nonetheless, a fresh concept, as well as precise execution, would suggest the artist’s ascendance and intense evolution in many different directions.
Dawid Czycz (born 1986) often enjoys using mass media in his paintings. He embraces memes, well-known characters, contemporary heroes and antiheroes, and mixes them with slogans, never apprehensive about uniting these two worlds. He feels comfortable in this reality. Oftentimes, everything happens there simultaneously, and tunes into the original harmony of the painter. Chaos is very surface-level. Is this his way of offering a critical commentary on the world changing at the speed of light? Definitely not. Although Czycz does indulge himself voraciously in the culture of globalisation, his works show fantasies teeming with humour and visions approached from a safe distance. Absurdity, irony, humour, and unreality are all characteristics of contemporary surrealism, as well as the individual style of Czycz. Slightly bitter human figures and intense, almost luminescent, colours present a sort of mocking image of reality – exaggerated, flaunting, in constant flux, but always meticulously polished from the painterly point of view.
At this show in Warsaw, the artist invokes characters, scenes and frames that he remembers not from the internet but from cinema and television. We look back at the late 20th century, slow down and go down memory lane. The selection of scenes depends solely on the unique impression of the artist, who states that it would be difficult for him to paint things and places that don’t resonate with him emotionally. Although being inspired by global pop culture and borrowing from it are nothing new, when it comes to Czycz’s practice, the series presented here is more balanced, less gaudy, thus taking a departure from marginally surrealist mental collages of the artist, who can surprise his audience once again. A rule takes precedence over seeming chaos; while the means of expression are not subjects, but rather the texture formed based on the colour. As a result, we arrive at an unusual reference to a banana, or its peel to be exact – hence the name “banana series” used by the artist and curators.
“As I was making this series, my biggest issue was the monotonous colour palette. I used only four colours, three of which were shades of brown. In the middle of my work on the series, I had to start painting this small colourful picture to take a breather once in a while and clear my mind. I certainly learned some patience while doing this series. These pieces required a lot of precision and planning as far as subsequent stages of the creative process were concerned.”
Banana peels turn black over time, brown spots appear on the outside of the fruit when it ripens. Time, growing, evanescence. Drawing on this concept, Czycz recreates well-known scenes from films, although the images differ from the ones etched in our memory. Hues are overtaken by the texture of yellow and brown – something is slowly rotting, warning us from coming closer. It’s all sort of sweet like fruit and at the same time dangerous like a wild animal, as it reminds us unintentionally of the leopard’s spots and the exoskeleton of a bee. Czycz used the idea of a banana in some of his previous works. However, in this case, he created the entire series based on this specific direction. This extensive collection projects strong magnetism mainly due to its sheer scope and coherent creative intention of the artist. There is no place for coincidence, only precision and excellently implemented projects.
Who gets painted by Czycz, then? Naturally, there is Kurt Cobain smoking a cigarette and holding a guitar, scenes from The Lion King, Laura Palmer’s portrait from Twin Peaks, The Mask, the kiss of Jack and Rose from The Titanic, scenes from The X-Files and Jurassic Park. Czycz takes a step further though, really zooming in on those scenes. Here, we can view the moustached smile of Freddy Mercury, the buttocs of Uma Thurman from Kill Bill, or Sharon Stone’s knee from Basic Instinct. The Polish context is represented by the portrait of Wioletta Villas. Needless to say, all this is painted in intense yellow with darkening spots.
“A pretty unique technical problem occurred while I was working on the project. The banana series is painted only with a specific kind of yellow from a small producer based in Krakow. It turned out in the middle of my work that I bought up their entire stock, and the production would resume in a couple of months. It was a huge surprise that forced me to conduct an extensive search. Ultimately, I mixed two different colours to obtain a similar one.”
At the Nocny Art Patrol Gallery, we have an opportunity to view the retrospective series, and be guided by the painter through a collection of scenes told after some time has passed. The older we get, the more fear we experience. The reality around us is changing. The carefree spirit of childhood is substituted by worries and a barrage of responsibilities. As we revisit the idols of our past, we can’t help but feel that these are no longer the same characters. We never knew them personally, but they were parts of our reality, icons of pop culture, points of departure. Facing them can be both disappointing and cleansing. We’re maturing, evolving – just like a banana peel. As Marcel Proust wrote in the novel In Search of Lost Time, “Never meet the people you admire, you’ll be disappointed.” In my opinion, this quote encapsulates the atmosphere of this series perfectly. Behind the sweet veil of depicted scenes lies the disappointment that comes with time.
“While creating this series, I realised what I found attractive in that period, I no longer do right now. I felt that this whole world carries the thick patina of old age, or banana spots in this case.”
A banana is a recurring motif in pop culture and visual art. Its controversial nature evokes emotions, but the show of Dawid Czycz made me wonder about the variety of roles and functions it could potentially fulfil. Banana as an object undermining the value and meaning of art (“Comedian” by Maurizio Cattelan). Banana as a symbol of pop culture (the cover of “The Velvet Underground & Nico” by Andy Warhol). Banana as an element of deconstruction of traditional gender roles and social conventions (“Consumer Art” by Natalia LL). Banana as a symbol of fertility (“Still Life with a Banana” by Frida Kahlo). Finally, Dawid Czycz uses the nature and ripening process of the fruit to communicate with the viewer, and tells the story about transience and inevitable time passing. Unreality and visual deconstruction are aimed at converting the spirit of the bygone days as well as their ephemeral nature.
Agnieszka Gołębiewska and Mariusz Horanin, curators of the exhibition “Smells Like Teen Spirit” present the oil paintings by Czycz in an extraordinary space in which the past meets the present. The ephemeral nature of a banana emphasises the fact that nothing lasts forever, even our feelings toward the memories from our teenage years. And so, we ask ourselves the question if this change is happening within us or results from the passing of time? However, I’m glad that the painterly interpretation of this subject steers clear of overwrought and tired motifs. On the contrary, there is a sort of lightness to it all. Once again, the painter took his audience by surprise with how well he can communicate with his members, how he tackles the universal and kind of salient subjects with humour and the right distance.
Written by Daga Ochendowska
